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THE ROMANCE OF NAMES

THE ROMANCE OF WORDS

ERNEST WEEKLEY, M.A.

Those interested in the curiosities of lan-
guage will find a veritable feast in this volume.

The book is popular in the best sense : that
is to say, Mr. Weekley does not presuppose
any profound knowledge of language in his
readers, and he is contented to surprise, in-
terest, and amuse without attempting to draw
a moral or bother one with theorizing.

"A scholarly, yet diverting book," — "A
very fascinating book," — " More fascinating
than a novel," — "A really delightful book,"
are among the nany compliments paid ' ' THE
ROMANCE OF WORDS" by the reviewers.

THE ROMANCE OF

NAMES

BY

ERNEST WEEKLEY, M.A.

PROFE5SOR OF FRENCH AND HEAD OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE

DEPARTMENT AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NOTTINGHAM; SOMETIME

SCHOLAR OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

NEW YORK

E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY

1914

'S . "2-\^ ?oo

PREFACE

The interpretation of personal names has always had
an attraction for the learned and others, but" the first
attempts to classify and explain our English surnames
date, so far as my knowledge goes, from 1605. In that
year Verstegan published his Restitution of Decayed
Intelligence, which contains chapters on both font-
names and surnames, and about the same time ap-
peared Camden' s Remains Concerning Britain, in which
the same subjects are treated much more fully. Both
of these learned antiquaries make excellent reading,
and much curious information may be gleaned from
their pages, especially those of Camden, whose position
as Clarencieux King-at-Arms gave him exceptional
opportunities for genealogical research. From the
philological point of view they are of course untrust-
worthy, though less so than most modern writers on
the same subject.

About the middle of the nineteenth century, the
period of Archbishop Trench and Canon Taylor, began a
kind of boom in works of this kind, and books on sur-
names are now numerous. But of all these industrious
compilers one only, Bardsley, can be taken seriously.
His Dictionary of English Surnames, published (Oxford
Press, 1901) from his notes some years after his death,
is invaluable to students. It represents the results of

vi PREFACE

twenty years' conscientious research among early rolls
and registers, the explanations given being usually sup-
ported by medieval instances. But it cannot be used
uncritically, for the author does not appear to have
been either a linguist or a philologist, and, although he
usually refrains from etymological conjecture, he occa-
sionally ventures with disastrous results. Thus, to take
a few instances, he identifies Prust with Priest, but the
medieval le prust is quite obviously the Norman form
of Old Fr. le proust, the provost. He attempts to
connect Pullen with the archaic Eng. pullen, poultry ;
but his early examples, le pulein, polayn, etc., are of
course Fr. Poulain, i.e. Colt. Under Fallows, explained
as " fallow lands," he quotes three examples of de la
faleyse, i.e. Fr. Falaise, corresponding to our Cliff,
Cleeve, etc. ; Pochin, explained as the diminutive of
some personal name, is the Norman form of the famous
name Poussin, i.e. Chick. Or, coming to native in-
stances, le wenchel, a medieval prototype of Winkle, is
explained as for " periwinkle," whereas it is a common
Middle-English word, originally a diminutive of
wench, and means Child. The obsolete Swordslipper,
now only Slipper, which he interprets as a maker of
" sword-slips," orsheaths, was really a sword-sharpener,
from Mid. Eng. slipen, cognate with Old Du. slijpen,
to polish, sharpen, and Ger. schleifen. Sometimes a very
simple problem is left unexplained, e.g. in the case of
the name Tyas, where the medieval instances of le
tyeis are to a student of Old French clearly le tieis or
tiois, i.e. the German, cognate with Ger. deutsch and
Ital. tedesco.

These examples are quoted, not in depreciation of
a conscientious student to whose work my own com-
pilation is greatly indebted, but merely to show that

PREFACE

vn

the etymological study of surnames has scarcely been
touched at present, except by writers to whom philo-
logy is an unknown science. I have inserted, as a
specimen problem (ch. xvi.), a little disquisition on the
name Rutter, a cursory perusal of which will convince
most readers that it is not much use making shots in
this subject.

My aim has been to steer a clear course between a too
learned and a too superficial treatment, and rather to
show how surnames are formed than to adduce in-
numerable examples which the reader should be able
to solve for himself. I have made no attempt to collect
curious names, but have taken those which occur in
the London Directory (1908) or have caught my eye in
the newspaper or the streets. To go into proofs would
have swelled the book beyond all reasonable propor-
tions, but the reader may assume that, in the case of
any derivation not expressly stated as a conjecture,
the connecting links exist. In the various classes of
names, I have intentionally omitted all that is obvious,
except in the rather frequent case of the obvious being
wrong. The index, which I have tried to make com-
plete, is intended to replace to some extent those cross-
references which are useful to students but irritating
to the general reader. Hundreds of names are sus-
ceptible of two, three, or more explanations, and I
do not profess to be exhaustive.

The subject-matter is divided into a number of rather
short chapters, dealing with the various classes and
subdivisions into which surnames fall ; but the
natural association which exists between names has
often prevailed over rigid classification. The quota-
tions by which obsolete words are illustrated are
taken as far as possible from Chaucer, whose writings

viii PREFACE

date from the very period when our surnames were
gradually becoming hereditary. I have also quoted
extensively from the Promptorium Parvulorum, our
earliest English-Latin Dictionary (1440).

In ch. vii, on Anglo-Saxon names, I have ob-
tained some help from a paper by the late Professor
Skeat (Transactions of the Philological Society, 1907-10,
pp. 57-85) and from the materials contained in
Searle's valuable Onomasticon Anglo-Saxonicum (Cam-
bridge, 1897). Among several works which I have con-
sulted on French and German family names, the most
useful have been Heintze's Deutsche Familiennamen,
3rd ed. (Halle a. S., 1908) and Kremers' Beitrdge zur
Erforschung der franzosischen Familiennamen (Bonn,
1910). The comparative method which I have adopted,
especially in explaining nicknames (ch. xxi), will be
found, I think, to clear up a good many dark points.
Of books on names published in this country, only
Bardsley's Dictionary has been of any considerable
assistance, though I have gleaned some scraps of infor-
mation here and there from other compilations. My
real sources have been the lists of medieval names
found in Domesday Book, the Pipe Rolls, the Hundred
Rolls, and in the numerous historical records piiblished
by the Government and by various antiquarian
societies.

Ernest Weekley.

Nottingham,

September 191 3.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE /

OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL" . . . I '

CHAPTER II

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 13

CHAPTER III

SPELLING AND SOUND 27 '

CHAPTER IV

BROWN, JONES AND ROBINSON ... 43

CHAPTER V

THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES . . 49

CHAPTER VI

TOM, DICK AND HARRY 56

x CONTENTS

CHAPTER VII

PAGE

GODERIC AND GODIVA ..... 68

CHAPTER VIII

PALADINS AND HEROES .... -78

CHAPTER IX

THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR . . .84

CHAPTER X

METRONYMICS. . . .... 92

CHAPTER XI

LOCAL SURNAMES 96

CHAPTER XII

SPOT NAMES 102

CHAPTER XIII

THE HAUNTS OF MAN ..... 120

CONTENTS x i

CHAPTER XIV

NORMAN BLOOD

CHAPTER XV

OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES .

CHAPTER XIX

HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

PAOE
137

143

CHAPTER XVI

A SPECIMEN PROBLEM jeft

CHAPTER XVII

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS . . . . 162

CHAPTER XVIII

TRADES AND CRAFTS ..... 168

177

CHAPTER XX

OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC . . . . 183

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER XXI

\ PAGE

\ OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL .... 189

CHAPTER XXII

ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES 208

CHAPTER XXIII

BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES .... 217

INDEX 231

The following dictionaries are quoted without further refer-
ence :

Promptorium Parvulorum (1440), ed. Mayhew (E.E.T.S.,

1908).
Palsgrave, L'Esclarcissement de la langue francoyse (1530),

ed. Genin (Paris, 1852).
Cooper, Thesaurus Lingucs Romanes et Britannicts (London,

IS73)-

Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues
(London, 161 1).

The Middle English quotations, except where otherwise
stated, are from Chaucer, the references being to the Globe
edition.

The Author has in preparation a comprehensive
Dictionary of English Surnames and would be
glad to receive contributions from readers interested
in the subject.

Information is especially desired on —

(i) Existence and locality of unusual names
or unusual variants of familiar names ;

(ii) Survival of names which might be sup-
posed to be extinct ;

(iii) Medieval records which appear likely to
throw light on modern forms.

It will be a convenience if such contributions are
written, as concisely as possible, on one side of
the paper only, and forwarded to MISS WEEKLEY,
49, Harvard Road, Chiswick, W.

THE ROMANCE OF NAMES

CHAPTER I

OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

" The French and we termed them Surnames, not because they
are the names of the Sire, or the father, but because they are super-
added to Christian names."

(Camden, Remains concerning Britain.)

The study of the origin of family names is at the
same time quite simple and very difficult. Its sim-
plicity consists in the fact that surnames can only
come into existence in certain well-understood ways.
Its difficulty is due to the extraordinary perversions
which names undergo in common speech, to the ortho-
graphic uncertainty of our ancestors, to the frequent
coalescence of two or more names of quite different
origin, and to the multitudinous forms which one
single name can assume, such forms being due to
local pronunciation, accidents of spelling, date of
assumption, and many minor causes. It must always
be remembered that the majority of our surnames
come from the various dialects of Middle English, i.e.
of a language very different from our own in spelling

2 I

2 OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

and sound, full of words that are now obsolete, and
of others which have completely changed their form
and meaning.

If we take any medieval roll of names, we see al-
most at a glance that four such individuals as —

John filius Simon
William de la Moor
Richard le Spicer
Robert le Long

exhaust the possibilities of English name-making — i.e.
that every surname must be (i) personal, from a sire
or ancestor, (ii) local, from place of residence, 1 (iii)
occupative, from trade or office, (iv) a nickname, from
bodily attributes, character; etc.

This can easily be illustrated from any list of names
taken at random. The Rugby team chosen to represent
the East Midlands against Kent (January 22, 1913)
consisted of the following fifteen names: Hancock;
Mobbs, Poulton, Hudson, Cook ; Watson, Earl ; Bull,
Muddiman, Collins, Tebbitt, Lacey, Hall, Osborne,
Manton. Some of these are simple, but others require
a little knowledge for their explanation. There are
seven personal names, and the first of these, Hancock,
is rather a problem. This is usually explained as
from Flemish Hanke, Johnny, while the origin of the
suffix -cock has never been very clearly accounted for
(see p. 65). With Hancock we may compare Hankin.

1 This is by far the largest class, counting by names, not indi-
viduals, and many names for which I give another explanation
have also a. local origin. Thus, when I say that Ely is Old Fr.
Elie, i.e. Elias, I assume that the reader will know without being
told that it must have an alternative explanation from Ely in
ambridgeshire.

PERSONAL NAMES 3

But, while the Flemish derivation is possible for
these two names, it will not explain Hanson, 1 which
sometimes becomes Hansom (p. 36). According to
Camden, there is evidence that Han was also used
as a rimed form of Ran, short for Ranolf and Randolf
(cf . Hob from Robert, Hick from Richard), very popular
names in the north during the surname period. In
Hankin and Hancock this Han would naturally coalesce
with the Flemish Hanke, This would also explain the
names Hand for Rand, and Hands, Hance for Rands,
Ranee. Mobbs is the same as Mabbs (cf. Moggy for
Maggy), and Mabbs is the genitive of Mab, i.e. Mabel,
for Amabel. We have the diminutive in Mappin and
the patronymic in Mapleson. Hudson is the son of
Hud, a very common medieval name, which seems to
represent Anglo-Saxon Hudda (p. 75), though there
is some evidence that it was also used for Richard.
Watson is the son of Wat, i.e. Walter, from theOld N.E.
Fr. Wautier (Gautier), regularly pronounced Water at
one time —

" My name is Walter Whitmore.
How now ! Why start'st thou ? What ! doth death affright ?

Suffolk. Thy name affrights me, in whose sound is death.
A cunning man did calculate my birth,
And told me that by water I should die."

(2 Henry VI, iv. 1.)

Hence the name Waters, which has not usually any
connection with water ; while Waterman, though some-
times occupative, is also formed from Walter, like
Hickman from Hick (see p. 64). Collins is from Colin,
a French diminutive of Col, i.e. Nicol or Nicolas.

1 The existence of such place-names as Hanbury, Hanley, Hanwell,
Hanworth, Handsworth, etc., precludes a purely Flemish origin for
Han.

4 OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

Tebbitt is a diminutive of Theobald, a favourite medieval
name which had the shortened forms Teb, Tib, Tub,
whence a number of derivatives. But names in Teb-
and Tib- may also come from Isabel (p. 94)- Osborne
is the Anglo-Saxon name Osbeorn.

Of course, each of these personal names has a
meaning, e.g. Amabel, ultimately Latin, means lovable,
and Walter, a Germanic name, means "rule army"
(Modern Ger. walten and Heer), but the discussion of
such meanings lies outside our subject. It is, in fact,
sometimes difficult to distinguish between the personal
name and the nickname. Thus Pagan, whence Payn,
with its diminutives Pannell, Pennell, etc., Gold, Good,
German, whence Jermyn, Jarman, and many other
apparent nicknames, occur as personal names in the
earliest records. Their etymological origin is in any
case the same as if they were nicknames.

Ta return to our football team, Poulton, Lacey, Hall,
and Manton are local. There are several villages in
Cheshire and Lancashire named Poulton, i.e. the town
or homestead (p. 123) by the pool. Lacey occurs in
Domesday Book as de Laci, from some small spot in
Normandy, probably the hamlet of Lassy (Calvados).
Hall is due to residence near the great house of the
neighbourhood. If Hall's ancestor's name had chanced
to be put down in Anglo-French as de la sale, he might
now be known as Sale, or even as Saul. Manton is
the name of places in Lincolnshire and Northampton-
shire, so that this player, at any rate, has an ancestral
qualification for the East Midlands.

The only true occupative name in the list is Cook, for
Earl is a nickname. Cook was perhaps the last occu-
pative title to hold its own against the inherited name.
Justice Shallow, welcoming Sir John Falstaff, says— -r

NICKNAMES 5

" Some pigeons, Davy ; a couple of short-legged hens, a joint
of mutton, and any pretty little tiny kickshaws. Tell William
Cook " (2 Henry IV, v. i.).

And students of the Ingoldsby Legends will remember
that—

"Ellen Bean ruled his cuisine. — He called her Nelly Cook."

(Nell Cook, 1. 33.)

There are probably a goodly number of housewives
of the present day who would be at a loss if suddenly
asked for ' ' cook's ' ' name in full .• It may be noted that
Lequeux means exactly the same, and is of identical
origin, archaic Fr. le queux, Lat. coquus, while Kew is
sometimes for Anglo-Fr. le keu, where keu is the ac-
cusative of queux (see p. 9, n.).

The nicknames are Earl, Bull, and Muddiman.
Nicknames such as Earl may have been acquired in
various ways (see p. 144). Bull and Muddiman are
singularly appropriate for Rugby scrummagers, though
the first may be from an inn or shop sign, rather than
from physique or character. It is equivalent to
Thoreau, Old Fr. toreau (taureau). Muddiman is for
Moodyman, where moody has its older meaning of
valiant ; cf . its German cognate mutig. The weather
on the day in question gave a certain fitness both to
the original meaning and the later form.

The above names are, with the exception of Hancock,
Hudson, and ' Muddiman, easy to solve ; but it must
not be concluded that every list is as simple, or that
the obvious is always right. The first page of Bards-
ley's Dictionary of Surnames might well serve as a
danger-signal to cocksure writers on this subject.
The names Abbey and Abbott would naturally seem
to go back to an ancestor who lived in or near an
abbey, and to another who had been nicknamed the

6 OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

abbot. But Abbey is usually from the Anglo-French
entry le abbe, the abbot, and Abbott is often a
diminutive of Ab, standing for Abel, or Abraham, the
first of which was a favourite medieval font-name.
Francis Holyoak describes himself on the title-page
of his Latin Dictionary (1612) as Franciscus de Sacra
Quercu, but his name comes from the holly oak, or
holm oak (see p. 118). On the other hand, Holliman
generally occurs in early rolls as halt or holi man,
i.e. holy man. *

It may be stated here, once for all, that etymolo-
gies of names which are based on medieval latiniza-
tions, family mottoes, etc., are always to be regarded
with suspicion, as they involve the reversing of chrono-
logy, or the explanation of a name by a pun which has
been made from it. We find Lilbume latinized as de
insula fontis, as though it were the impossible hybrid
de I'isle burn, and Beaufoy sometimes as de bella fide,
whereas foy is the Old French for beech, from Lat.
fagus. Na-pier of Merchiston had the motto n'a -pier,
" has no equal," and described himself on title-pages
as the Nonpareil, but his ancestor was a servant who
looked after the napery. With Holyoak' s rendering of
his own name we may compare Parkinson's " latiniza-
tion" of his name in his famous book on gardening(i62g),
which bears the title Paradisi in Sole Paradisus Terres-
tris, i.e. the Earthly Paradise of "Park in Sun."

Many noble names have an anecdotic " explanation."
I learnt at school that Percy came from pierce-eye,
in allusion to a treacherous exploit at Alnwick. The
Lesleys claim descent from a hero who overthrew a
Hungarian champion —

" Between the less lee and the mair
He slew the knight and left him there."

(Quentin Durward, ch. xxxvii.)

MYTHICAL ETYMOLOGIES 7

Similarly, the great name of Courtenay, Courtney, of
French local origin, is derived in an Old French epic
from court nez, short nose, an epithet conferred on the
famous Guillaume d'Orange, who, when the sword of
a Saracen giant removed this important feature,
exclaimed undauntedly —

"Mais que mon nes ai un poi acorcie,
Bien sai mes nons en sera alongi6." 1

(Li Coronemenz Loois, 1. 1159.)

I read lately in some newspaper that the original Lock-
hart took the " heart " of the Bruce to the Holy Land in
a " locked " casket. Practically every famous Scottish
name has a yarn connected with it, the gem perhaps
being that which accounts for Guthrie. A Scottish
king, it is said, landed weary and hungry as the sole
survivor of a shipwreck. He approached a woman
who was gutting fish, and asked her to prepare one
for him. The kindly fishwife at once replied, " I'll
gut three." Whereupon the king, dropping into rime
with a readiness worthy of Mr. Wegg, said —

"Then gut three. Your name shall be,"

and conferred a suitable estate on his benefactress.
After all, truth is stranger than fiction. There is
quite enough legitimate cause for wonderment in the
fact that Tyas is letter for letter the same name as
Douch, or that Strangeways, from a district in Man-
chester which, lying between the Irwell and the Irk,
was formerly subject to floods, is etymologically
strong-wash. The Joannes Acutus whose tomb stands
in Florence is the great free-lance captain Sir John

1 " Though I have my nose a little shortened, I know well that my
name will be thereby lengthened."

8 OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

Hawkwood, " omitting the h in Latin as frivolous, and
the k and w as \musual " (Verstegan, Restitution of
Decayed Intelligence, ch. ix), which makes him almost
as unrecognizable as that Peter Gower, the supposed
founder of freemasonry, who turned out to be Pythag-
oras.

Many names are susceptible of two, three, or more
explanations. This is especially true of some of our
commonest monosyllabic surnames. Bell may be
from Anglo-Fr. le bel (beau), or from a shop sign,
or from residence near the church or town bell. It
may even have been applied to the man who pulled
the bell. Finally, the ancestor may have been
a lady called Isabel, a supposition which does not
necessarily imply illegitimacy (see p. 92). Ball is
sometimes the shortened form of the once favourite
Baldwin. It is also from a shop sign, and perhaps most
frequently of all is for bald. The latter word is pro-
perly balled, i.e., marked with a ball, 1 or white streak,
a word of Celtic origin ; cf. piebald, i.e., balled like a
(mag)pie, and the bald-faced stag. From the same
word we get the augmentative Ballard, used, according
to Wyclif, by the little boys who unwisely called to
an irritable prophet —

"Stey up battard" (2 Kings ii. 23).

The name may also be personal, Anglo-Sax. Beal-

heard. Rowe may be local, from residence in a row

(cf. Fr. Delarue), or it may be an accidental spelling

1 Halliwell notes that the nickname Ball is the name of a
horse in Chaucer and Tusser, of a sheep in the Promptorium
Parvulorum, and of a dog in the Privy Purse Expenses of
Henry VIII. In each case the name alludes to a white mark, or
what horsy people call a star. A cow thus marked is called in
Scotland a. boasand cow, and from the same word comes the
obsolete bawson, badger.

ALTERNATIVE ORIGINS 9

of the nickname Roe, which also survives in the Mid.
English form Ray (p. 223). But Row was also the
shortened form of Rowland, or Roland. Cobb is an
Anglo-Saxon name, as in the local Cobham, but it is
also from the first syllable of Cobbold (Cuthbeald) and
the second of Jacob. It has the diminutives Cobbin
and Coftpin.

Or, to take some less common names, House not only
represents the medieval de la house, but also stands for
Howes, which, in its turn, may be the plural of how, a
hill (p. 106), or the genitive of How, one of the numer-
ous medieval forms of Hugh (p. 59) . Barnett is some-
times local, but, in most cases, represents Bernard,
many of our Barnetts being German Jews. But in
William del bamet, who died in 1348, we have a variant
of Burnet, burn head (see p. 115). Rouse is generally
Fr. roux, i.e. the red, but it may also be the nomina-
tive l form of Rou, i.e. of Rolf, or Rollo, the sea-king
who conquered Normandy. Was Holman the holy
man, the man who lived near a holm, i.e. holly (p. 118),
on a holm, or river island (p. 117), or in a hole, or
hollow ? AH these origins have equal claims.

As a rule, when an apparent nickname is also sus-
ceptible of another solution, baptismal, local, or occupa-
tive, the alternative explanation is to be preferred,
as the popular tendency has always been towards
twisting names into significant words. Thus, to take
an example of each class, Diamond is for an old per-
sonal name Dimond, Portwine is a corruption of
Poitevin, the man from Poitou (p. 99), and Tipler,

1 Old French had a declension in two cases. The nominative,
which has now almost disappeared, was usually distinguished by -s.
This survives in a few words, e.g. fils, and proper names such as
Charles, Jules, etc.

io OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

which now suggests alcoholic excess, was, as late as
the seventeenth century, the regular name for an ale-
house keeper.

Thus in a very large number of cases there is a con-
siderable choice for the modern bearer of a name. Any
Boon or Bone who wishes to assert that —

" Of Hereford's high blood he came,
A race renown' d for knightly fame "

(Lord of the Isles, vi. 15),

can claim descent from de Bohun. While, if he holds
that kind hearts are more than coronets, he has an
alternative descent from some medieval le bon. This
adjective, used as a personal name, gave also Bunn
and Bunce; for the spelling of the latter name cf.
Dance for Dans, and Pearce for Piers, the nominative
of Pierre (see p. 9, n.), which also survives in Pears
and Pearson. Swain may go back to the father of
Canute, or to some hoary-headed swain who, possibly,
tended the swine. Not all the Seymours are St.
Mams. Some of them were once Seamers, i.e.
tailors. Gosling is rather trivial, but it represents the
romantic Jocelyn, in Normandy Gosselin, a diminu-
tive of the personal name Josse, Lat. Jodocus. Goss
is usually for goose, but any Goss, or Gossett, unwilling
to trace his family back to John Goose, " my lord of
Yorkes fole," 1 may likewise choose the French Josse
or Gosse. Goss may also be a dialect pronunciation of
gorse, the older form of which has given the name
Gorst. Coward, though humble, cow-herd, is no more
timid than Craven, the name of a district in the West
Riding of Yorkshire.

Mr. Chucks, when in good society, " seldom bowed,
1 Privy Purse Expenses of Elizabeth of York (1502),

NAMES DESIRABLE OR UNDESIRABLE n

sir, to anything under three syllables" {Peter Simple,
ch. xvii.). But the length of a name is not necessarily
an index of a noble meaning. As will be seen (pp. 74, 5 ),
a great number of our monosyllabic names belong to
the oldest stratum of all. The boatswain's own name,
from Norman-Fr. chouque, a tree-stump, is identical
with the rather aristocratic Zouch or Such, from the
usual French form souche. Stubbs, which has the
same meaning, may be compared with Curzon, Fr.
courson, a stump, a derivative of court, short. Pomeroy
has a lordly ring, but is the Old French for Applegarth
or Appleyard (p. 142), and Camoys means flat-nosed,
Fr. camus —

"This wenche thikke and wel y-growen was,
With kamuse nose, and eyen greye as glas."

(A, 3973-)

Kingsley, speaking of the name assumed by John
Briggs, says —

" Vavasour was a very pretty name, and one of those which is
[sic] supposed by novelists and young ladies to be aristocratic ;
why so is a puzzle ; as its plain meaning is a tenant farmer and
nothing more or less " (Two Years Ago, ch. xi.).

The word is interesting, because it is one of the few
instances of a Latin genitive plural having passed
into French. It represents a Vulgar Lat. vassus
vassorum, vassal of vassals.

On the other hand, many a homely name has a
complimentary meaning. Mr. Wegg did not like the
name Boffin, but its oldest form is bon-fin, good and
fine. In 1273 Mr. Bumble's name was spelt bon-bel,
good and beautiful. With these we may group
Bunker, of which the oldest form is bon-quer (bon
cceur), and Boffey, which corresponds to the common

12 OF SURNAMES IN GENERAL

French name Bonnefoy, good faith; while the much
more assertive Beaufoy means simply fine beech (p. 6) .
With Bunker we may compare Goodhart and Cor-
deaux, the oldest form of the latter being the French
name Cceurdoux. Momerie and Mummery are identical
with Mowbray, from Monbrai in Normandy. Moly-
neux impresses more than Mullins, of which it is merely
the dim., Fr. moulins, mills. The Yorkshire name
Tankard is a perversion of Tancred. Stiggins goes
back to the illustrious Anglo-Saxon name Stigand, as
Wiggins does to wigand, a champion. Cadman repre-
sents Caedmon, the name of the poet-monk of Whitby.
Segar and Sugar are imitative forms of the Anglo-
Sax. Ssegser, of which the normal modern representa-
tive is Sayers. Giblett is not a name one would covet,
but it stands in the same relationship to Gilbert as
Hamlet does to Hamo.

A small difference in spelling makes a great difference
in the look of a name. The aristocratic Coke is an
archaic spelling of Cook, the still more lordly Herries
sometimes disguises Harris, while the modern Brassey
is the same as de Bracy in Ivanhoe. The rather grisly
Nightgall is a variant of Nightingale. The accidental
retention of particles and articles is also effective, e.g.
Delmar, Delamere, Delapole, impress more than Mears
and Pool, and Larpent (Fr. l'arpent), Lemaitre, and
Lestrange more than Acres, Masters, and Strange. There
are few names of less heroic sound than Spark and
Codlin, yet the former is a contraction of the pic-
turesque Sparrow-hawk, used as a personal name by
the Anglo-Saxons, while the latter can be traced back
via the earlier forms Quodling (still found), Querdling,
Querdelyoun to Coeur de Lion.

CHAPTER II

A MEDIEVAL ROLL

" Quelque diversity d'herbes qu'il y ait, tout s'enveloppe sous
le nom de salade ; de mesme, sous la consideration des noms, je
m'en voys faire icy une galimafree de divers articles."

(Montaigne, Essais, i. 46.)

Just as, in studying a new language, the linguist finds
it most helpful to take a simple text and hammer out
in detail every word and grammatical form it contains,
so the student of name-lore cannot do better than
tackle a medieval roll and try to connect every name
in it with those of the present day. I give here two
lists of names from the Hundred Rolls of 1273. The
first contains the names of London and Middlesex
jurymen, most of them, especially the Londoners, men
of substance and position. The second is a list of
cottagers resident in the village of Steeple Claydon in
Bucks. Even a cursory perusal of these lists should
suffice to dispel all recollection of the nightmare ' ' philo-
logy " which has been so much employed to obscure
what is perfectly simple and obvious ; while a very
slight knowledge of Latin and French is all that is
required to connect these names of men who were
dead and buried before the Battle of Crecy with those
to be found in any modern directory. The brief
indications supplied under each name will be found in
a fuller form in the various chapters of the book to
which references are given.

13

14 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

For simplicity I have given the modern English
form of each Christian name and expanded the. abbre-
viations used by the official compilers. It will be
noticed that English, Latin, and Anglo-French are
used indifferently, that le is usually, though not always,
put before the trade-name or nickname, that de is
put before place-names and at before spots which have
no proper name. The names in the right-hand column
are only specimens of the, often very numerous, modern
equivalents.

London Jurymen

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

William Dibel. Dibble (Theobald).

Initial t- and d- alternate (p. 32 ) according to locality.
In Tennyson, for Denison, son of Denis, we have the
opposite change. The forms assumed by Theobald
are very numerous (p. 4). Besides Dibble we have
the shorter Dibb. It is almost certain that to the
same name we owe both Double and Treble, the
latter with the intrusive -r- which is not unusual in
names (p. 88, n. 1)

Baldwin le Bocher. Butcher, Booker, etc.

On the various forms of this name, see p. 149.

Robert Hauteyn. Auty.

A Yorkshire name. The omission or addition of an
aspirate is very common (p. 38). Cf. Harnett for
Arnett, dim. of Arnold.

Henry le Wimpler.

The name has apparently disappeared with the gar-
ment. But it is never safe to assert that a surname
is quite extinct.

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 15

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Stephen le Feron. Fearon.

From Old Fr. feron, smith, from ferir, to smite. In a
few cases French has -on as an agential suffix (p. 171).

William de Paris. Paris, Parris, Parish.

The commoner modern form Parish is seldom to be
derived from our word parish. This rarely occurs,
while the entry de Paris is, on the other hand, very
common.

Roger le Wyn. Wynne (white).

A Celtic nickname, identical with Gwynne. For
other common nicknames of Celtic origin, see p. 216.

Matthew de Pomfrait. Pomfret.

The usual pronunciation of Pontefract, broken bridge,
one of the few English place-names of purely Latin
origin (p. 120). The Old French form would be pont-
frait.

Richard le Paumer. Palmer.

A man who had made pilgrimage to the Holy Land
(p. 167). The modern spelling is restored, but the -l-
remains mute. It is just possible that this name
sometimes means tennis-player, as tennis, Fr. le jeu
de paume, once played with the palm of the hand, is
of great antiquity.

Walter Poletar. Poulter.

A dealer in poults, i.e. fowls. For the lengthened
form poulterer, cf. fruiterer for fruiter, and see p. 155.

Reginald Aurifaber. Goldsmith.

The French form orfevre has also given the name
Offer.

16 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Henry Deubeneye. Daubeney, Dabney.

Fr. d'Aubigny. One of the many cases in which the
French preposition has been incorporated in the name.
Cf. Danvers, for d'Anvers, Antwerp, and see p. ioo.

Richard Knotte. Knott.

From Scandinavian Cnut, Canute. This name is also
local, from knot, a hillock, and has of course become
confused (p. 30) with the nickname Nott, with cropped
hair (p. 210).

" Thou MO«-pated fool."

(1 Henry IV, ii. 4.)

Walter le Wyte. White.

The large number of Whites is partly to be accounted
for by their having absorbed the name Wight (p. 214)
from Mid. Eng. wiht, valiant.

Adam le Sutel. Suttle.

Both Eng. subtle and Fr. subtil are restored

spellings, which do not appear in nomenclature (see
p. 29).

Fulk de Sancto Edmundo. Tedman.

The older form would be Tednam. Bury St. Ed-
mund's is sometimes referred to as Tednambury. For
the mutilation of the word saint in place-names, see
P- 34-

William le Boteler. Butler.

More probably a bottle-maker than what we under-
stand by a butler, the origin being of course the same.

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 17

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Gilbert Lupus. Wolf.

Wolf, and the Scandinavian Ulf , are both common as
personal names before the Conquest, but a good many
modern bearers of the name are German Jews (see
p. 55). Old Fr. lou (loup) is one source of Low.

Stephen Juvenis. Young.

Senex is rarely found. The natural tendency was to
distinguish the younger man from his father. Senior
is generally to be explained differently (see p. 145).

William Braciator. Brewer.

The French form brasseur also survives as Bracher
and Brasher, the latter being also confused with
Brazier, the worker in brass.

John de Cruce. Cross, Crouch.

A man who lived near some outdoor cross. The
form crouch survives in Crutched Friars. Hence also
the name Croucher.

Matthew le Candeler. Candler, Chandler.

Initial c- for ch- shows Norman or Picard origin
(see p. 32).

Henry Bernard. Barnard, Barnett.

The change from -er- to -ar- is regular ; cf . Clark, and
see p. 32 . The endings -aril, -aid, are generally changed
to -ett; cf. Everett for Everard, Barrett for Berald,
Garrett for Gerard, Garrard, whence the imitative
Garrison for Garretson.
3

18 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

William de Bosco. Bush, Busk, Buss.

" For there is neither busk nor hay (p. 124)
In May that it nyl shrouded bene."

(Romaunt of the Rose, 54-)

The name might also be translated as Wood. The
corresponding name of French origin is Boyce or
Boyes, Fr. bois (see p. 140).

Henry de Sancta Ositha. Toosey.

Cf. Fulk de Sancto Edmundo (supra), and cf. Tooley
St. for St. Olave St. (see p. 34).

Walter ate Stede. Stead.

In this case the preposition has not coalesced, as
in Adeane, at the dean, i.e. hollow, Agate, at gate, etc.
(see p. 104).

William le Fevere. Wright, Smith.

The French name survives as Feaver and Fevyer.
Cf. also the Lat. Faber, which is not always a modern
German importation (see p. 105, n.).

Thomas de Cumbe. Combe, Coombes.

A West- country name for a hollow in a hillside
(see p. 106).

John Stace. Stace, Stacey.

Generally for Eustace, but sometimes perhaps for
Anastasia, as we find Stacey used as a female name
(see p. 33).

Richard le Teynturier. Dyer, Dyter, Dexter.

Dexter represents Mid. Eng. dighester, with the femin-
ine agential suffix (see p. 149).

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 19

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Henry le Waleys. Wallis, Walsh, Welch.

Literally the foreigner, but especially applied by the
English to the Western Celts. Quelch represents the
Welsh pronunciation. With Wallis cf . Comwallis, Mid.
Eng. le cornwaleis (see p. 96).

John le Bret. Brett, Britton.

An inhabitant of Brittany, perhaps resident in that

Breton colony in London called Little Britain. Bret

is the Old French nominative of Breton (see p. 8o, n. 1).

Thomas le Clerc. Clark.

One of our commonest names. We now spell the
common noun clerk by etymological reaction, but
educated people pronounce the word as it was generally
written up to the eighteenth century (see p. 32).

Stephen le Hatter.

The disappearance of this name is a curious problem
(see p. 151). The name Capper exists, though it is not
very common.

Thomas le Batur. Thresher.

But, being a Londoner, he was more probably a
gold-beater, or perhaps a beater of cloth. The name
Beater also survives.

Alexander de Leycestre. Leicester, Lester.

For the simpler spelling, once usual and still adopted
by those who chalk the names on the mail-vans at
St. Pancras, cf. such names as Worster, Wooster,
Gloster, etc. (see p. 99).

20 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Robert le Noreys. Norris, Nurse.

Old Fr. noreis, the Northerner (see p. 97). ° r norice
(nourrice), the nurse, foster-mother (see p. 185).

Reginald le Blond. Blount, Blunt.

Fr. blond, fair. We have also the dim. Blun-
dell. The corresponding English name is Fairfax,
from Mid. Eng. fax, hair (see p. 214).

Randolf ate Mor. Moor.

With the preposition retained (see p. 104) it has given
the Latin-looking Amor.

Matthew le Pevrier. Pepper.

For the reduction of pepperer to Pepper cf. Armour
for armourer, and see p. 155.

Godfrey le Furmager. Cheeseman, Firminger.

From Old Fr. formage (fromage). The intrusion of
the n in Firminger is regular ; cf . Massinger, messenger,
from Fr. messager, and see p. 35 .

Robert Campeneys. Champness, Champneys.

Old Fr. champeneis (champenois), of Champagne
(see p. 99).

John del Pek. Peck, Peake, Pike, Pick.

A name taken from a hill-top, but often applied
specifically to the Derbyshire Peak (see p. 107).

Richard Dygun. Dickens.

A diminutive of Dig, for Dick (see p. 63).

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 21

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Peter le Hoder. Hodder.

A maker of hods or a maker of hoods ? The latter
is more likely.

Alan Allutarius. Whittier.

Lat. alutarius, a white tawer. Similarly, Mid. Eng.
stan-heawere, stone-hewer, is contracted to Stanier,
now swallowed up by Stainer. The simple tawer is
also one origin of the name Tower.

Peter le Rus. Russ, Rush, Rouse.

Fr. roux, of red complexion. Cf. the dim. Russell,
Fr. Rousseau (see p. 214).

Middlesex Jurymen

Roger de la Hale. Hall, Hale, Hales.

One of our commonest local surnames. But it has
two interpretations, from hall and heal (p. 116).

Walter de la Hegge. Hedge, Hedges.

Other forms of the same word are Hay, Hayes,
Haig, Haigh, Hawes (see p. 124).

John Rex. King.

One of our commonest nicknames, the survival of
which is easily understood (see p. 144).

Stephen de la Novele Meyson. Newhouse.

Cf. also Newbigging, from Mid. Eng. biggen, to
build (see p. 133).

Randolf Pokoc. Pocock, Peacock.

The simple Poe, Lat. fiavo, has the same meaning
(see p. 218).

22 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

William de Fonte. Spring, Wells, Weller, Attewell.

This is the more usual origin of the name Spring
(see p. 90).

Robert del Perer. Perrier.

Old Fr. perier (poirier), pear-tree. Another origin of
Perrier is, through French, from Lat. petrarius, a stone-
hewer.

Adam de la Denne. Denne, Dean, Dene.

A Mid. English name for valley (see p. 112).

Robertus filius Gillelmi. Wilson.

For other possible names to be derived from a father
named William, see p. 63.

William filius Radolfi. Rawson.

A very common medieval name, Anglo-Sax. Rsd-
wulf, the origin of our Ralph, Relf, Rolfe, Roff, and of
Fr. Raoul. Some of its derivatives, e.g. Rolls, have got
mixed with those of Roland. To be distinguished from
Randolf or Randall, of which the shorter form is Ran
or Rand, whence Rankin, Rands, Ranee, etc.

Steeple Claydon Cottagers

Andrew Colle. Collins, Colley.

For Nicolas (see p. 57).

William Neuman. Newman, Newcomb.

A man recently settled in the village (see p. 106).

Adam ate Dene. Dean, Denne, Adeane.

The separate at survives in a' Court and a Beckett,
at the beck head ; cf. Allan a' Dale (see p. 104) .

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 23

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Ralph Mydevynter. Midwinter.

An old name for Christmas (see p. 89).

William ate Hull. Athill, Hill, Hull.

The form hul for hit occurs in Mid. English (see p. 106)

Gilbert Sutor. Sutor, Souter.

On the poor representation of the shoemaker see
p. 151.

Walter Maraud.

It is easy to understand the disappearance of this
name —

" A rogue, begger, vagabond ; a varlet, rascall, scoundrell, base
knave " (Cotgrave) ;

but it may be represented by Marratt, Marrott, unless
these are from Mary (p. 93).

Nicholas le P.ker.

This may be expanded into Parker, a park-keeper,
Packer, a wool-packer, or the common medieval
Porker, a swine-herd, now disguised as Parker.

John Stegand. Stiggins.

Anglo-Saxon names survived chiefly among the
peasantry (see p. 12).

Roger Mercator. Marchant, Chapman.

The restored modern spelling merchant has affected
the pronunciation of the common noun (see p. 32).
The more usual term Chapman is cognate with cheap,
chafer, Chipping, Copenhagen, Ger. kaufen, to buy, etc.

24 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Adam Hoppe. Hobbs, Hobson, Hopkins.

An example of the interchange of b and ft (see p. 35
Hob is usually regarded as one of the rimed forms
from Robert (see p. 62).

Roger Crom. Crum, Crump.

Lit. crooked, cognate with Ger. krumm. The final
-ft of Crumft is excrescent (see p. 35).

Stephen Cornevaleis. Cornwallis, Cornish.

A name which would begin in Devonshire (see p. 96).

Walter de Ibernia. Ireland.

A much more common name than Scotland, which
has been squeezed out by Scott (see p. 96).

Matilda filia Matildse. Mawson (for Maud-son), Till,

Tilley, Tillett, Tillotson, etc.
One of the favourite girl-names during the surname
period (seep. 93).

Ralph Vouler. Fowler.

A West-country pronunciation ; cf . Vowle for Fowell,
Vokes. for Foakes (p. 61), Venn for Fenn, etc.

John Alius Thomse. Thompson, Tompkins, Tomlin, etc.
One of the largest surname families. It includes
Toulmin, a metathesis of Tomlin. In Townson and
Tonson it coalesces with Tony, Anthony.

Henry Bolle. Bull.

In this case evidently a nickname (see p. 5).

A MEDIEVAL ROLL 25

Hundred Rolls Modern Form

Roger Gyle. Gill.

For names in Gil- see p. 59. The form in the roll
may, however, represent an uncomplimentary nick-
name, " guile."

Walter Molendarius. Miller, Mellor, Milner.

In Milne, Milner, we have the oldest form, repre-
senting Vulgar Lat. molina, mill ; cf . Kilner, from
kiln, Lat. culina, kitchen. Millard (p. 180) is no doubt
sometimes the same name with excrescent -d.

Thomas Berker. Barker.

A man who stripped bark, also a tanner. But as a
surname reinforced by the Norman form of Fr. berger,
a shepherd (see p. 150).

Matthew Hedde. Head.

Sometimes local, at the head, but here a nickname ;
cf. Tate, Tail, sometimes from Fr. tete (see p. 126).

Richard Joyet. Jowett, Jewett.

A diminutive either of Joy or of Julian, Juliana.
But it is possible that Joy itself is not the abstract
noun, but a shortened form of Julian.

Adam Kyg. Ketch, Keach.

An obsolete adjective meaning lively (see p. 212).

Simon Alius Johannis Nigelli. Johnson, Jones, Jennings,

etc.
The derivatives of John are innumerable and not
to be distinguished from those of Joan, Jane (see p. 95).

26 A MEDIEVAL ROLL

In the above lists occur examples of all the ways in
which surnames could be formed. At the time of
compilation they were not hereditary. Thus the last
man on the list is Simon Johnson, but his father was
John Neilson, or Nelson (see p. 95), and his son would

be Simpson, Sims, etc. This would go on until, at

a period varying with the locality, the wealth and im-
portance of the individual, etc., one name in the line
would become accidentally petrified and persist to the
present day. The chain could, of course, be broken at
any time by the assumption of a name from one of the
other three classes.

CHAPTER III

SPELLING AND SOUND

" Do you spell it with a V or a W ? " inquired the judge.

" That depends upon the taste and fancy of the speller, my lord,"
replied Sam. " I never had occasion to spell it more than once or
twice in my life, but I spells it with a V."

(Pickwick, ch. xxxiv.)

Many people are particular about the spelling of their
names. I am myself, although, as a student of philo-
logy, I ought to know better. The greatest of English-
men was so careless in the matter as to sign himself
Shagsfer, a fact usually emphasized by Baconians when
speaking of the illiterate clown of Stratford-on-Avon.
Equally illiterate must have been the learned Dr.
Crown, who, in the various books he published in the
latter half of the seventeenth century, spelt his name
indifferently Cron, Croon, Croun, Crone, Croone,
Croune. The modern spelling of any particular name
is a pure accident. Before the Elementary Education
Act of 1870 a considerable proportion of English people
did not spell their names at all. They trusted to the
parson and the clerk, who did their best with unfamiliar
names. Even now old people in rural districts may
find half a dozen orthographic variants of their own
names among the sparse documentary records of their
lives. Dugdale the antiquary is said to have found
more than 130 variants of Mainwaring among the

37

28 SPELLING AND SOUND

parchments of that family. Bardsley quotes, under
the name Blenkinsop —

" On April 23, 14 70, Elizabeth Blynkkynesoppye , of Blynkkynsoppe ,
widow of Thomas Blynkyensope, of Blynhkensope, received a general
pardon " —

four variants in one sentence. In the List of Foreign
Protestants and Aliens in England (1618) we have
Andrian Medlor and Ellin Medley his wife, Johan Cosen
and Abraham Cozen, brethren. The death of Sarah
Inward, daughter of Richard Inwood, was registered
in 1685.

Medieval spelling was roughly phonetic, i.e. it at-
tempted to reproduce the sound of the period and region,
and even men of learning, as late as the eighteenth
century, were very uncertain in matters of orthography.
The spelling of the language is now practically normal-
ized, although in conformity with no sort of principle ;
but the family name, as a private possession, has kept
its freedom. Thus, if we wish to speak poetically of
a meadow, I suppose we should call it a lea, but the
same word is represented by the family names Lea,
Lee, Ley, Leigh, Legh, Legge, Lay, Lye, perhaps the
largest group of local surnames we possess.

In matters of spelling we observe various tendencies.
One is the retention of an archaic form, which does not
necessarily affect pronunciation. Late Mid. English
was fond of y for i, of double consonants, and of final
-e. All these appear in the names Thynne (thin) and
Wyllie (wily). Therefore we should not deride the
man who writes himself Smythe. But in some cases
the pronunciation suffers, e.g. the name Fry represents
Mid. Eng. fri, one of the forms of the adjective that is
now written free. Burt represents Anglo-Sax. beorht,
the normal result of which is Bright. We now write

VARIANT SPELLINGS 29

subtle and perfect, artificial words, in the second of which
the pronunciation has been changed in accordance
with the restored spelling ; but the older forms survive
in the names Suttle and Parfitt —

" He was a verray parfit, gentil knyght."

(A. 72.)

The usual English pronunciation of nanies like Mac-
kenzie, Menzies, Dalziel, is due to the substitution by
the printer of a z for an obsolete letter 1 that repre-
sented a soft palatal sound more like y.

We have an archaic plural endingin Knollys(Knowles),
the plural of knoll, and in Sandys, and an archaic spell-
ing mSclater for Slater or Slatter, for both slat and slate
come from Old Fr. esclat (eclat), a splinter. With
Knollys and Sandys we may put Pepys, for the exist-
ence of the dims. Pipkin, Peppitt, and Peppiatt points
to the medieval name Pipun, corresponding to the
royal Pepin. Streatfeild preserves variant spellings
of street and field. In Gardiner we have the Old
Northern French word which now, as a common
noun, gardener, is assimilated to garden, the normal
French form of which appears in Jardine.

Such orthographic variants as i and y, Simons,
Symons, ph and /, Jephcott, Jeffcott, s and c, Pearse,
Pearce, Rees, Reece,Sellars (cellars), ks and#, Dickson,
Dixon, are a matter of taste or accident. Initial letters
which became mute often disappeared in spelling, e.g.

1 This substitution has led one writer on surnames, who appar-
ently confuses bells with beans, to derive the obsolete name
Billiter, whence Billiter's Lane in the City, from " Belzetter, i.e., the
bell-setter." The Mid. Eng. " bellezeter, campanarius " (Prompt.
Pan.), was a bell-founder, from a verb related to geysir, ingot, and
Ger. giessen, to pour. Robert le bellegeter was a freeman of York
in 1279.

3 o SPELLING AND SOUND

Wray, a corner (p. 127), has become hopelessly confused
with Ray, a roe, Knott, from Cnut, i.e. Canute, or
from dialect knot, a hillock, with Nott, crop-haired.
Knowlson is the son of Nowell (see p. 89) or of Noll,
i.e. Oliver. Therefore, when Mr. X. asserts that his
name has always been spelt in such and such a way,
he is talking nonsense. If his great-grandfather's
will is accessible, and a document of any length, he
will probably find two or three variants in that alone.
The great Duke of Wellington, as a younger man,
signed himself Arthur Wesley —

" He was colonel of Dad's regiment, the Thirty-third foot, after
Dad left the army, and then he changed his name from Wesley
to Wellesley, or else the other way about "

(Kipling, Marklake Witches) ;

and I know two families the members of which
disagree as to the orthography of their names. We
have a curious affectation in such spellings as ffrench,
ffoulkes, etc., where the ff is merely the method of indi-
cating the capital letter in early documents.

The telescoping of long names is a familiar phe-
nomenon. Well-known examples are Cholmondeley,
Chumley, Marjoribanks, Marchbanks, Mainwaring,
Mannering. Less familiar are Auchinleck, Affleck,
Boutevilain, Butlin, Postlethwaite, Posnett, Sudeley,
Sully, Wolstenholme, Woosnam. Ensor is from the local
Edensor, Cavendish was regularly Candish for the Eliza-
bethans, while Cavenham in Suffolk has given the sur-
name Canham. Daventry has become Daintree, Dentry,
and probably the imitative Dainty, while Stenson is for
Stevenson. It is this tendency which makes the con-
nection between surnames and village names so diffi-
cult to establish in many cases, for the artificial name
as it occurs in the gazetteer often gives little clue to

DIALECTIC VARIANTS 31

the local pronunciation. It is easy to recognize
Bickenhall or Bickenhill in Bicknell and Puttenham
in Putnam, but the identity of Wyndham with
Wymondham is only clear when we know the local
pronunciation of the latter name. Milton and Melton
are often telescoped forms of Middleton.

Dialectic variants must also be taken into account.
Briggs and Rigg represent the Northern forms of
Bridges and Ridge, and Philbrick is a disguised fell-
bridge. In Egg we have rather the survival of the
Mid. English spelling of Edge. Braid, Lang, Strang,
are Northern variants of Broad, Long, Strong. Auld
is for Old, while Tamson is for Thompson and Dabbs
for Dobbs (Robert). We have the same change of
vowel in Raper, for Roper. Venner generally means
hunter, Fr. veneur, but sometimes represents the West-
country form of Fenner, the fen-dweller ; cf. Vidler
for fiddler, and Vanner for Fanner, the winnower.

We all know the difficulty we have in catching a new
and unfamiliar name, and the subterfuges we employ
to find out what it really is. In such cases we do
not get the help from association and analogy which
serves us in dealing with language in general, but find
ourselves in the position of a foreigner or child hearing
an unfamiliar word for the first time. We realize how
many imperceptible shades there are between a short
i and a short e, or between a fully voiced g and a voice-
less k, examples suggested to me by my having lately
understood a Mr. Riggs to be a Mr. Rex.

We find occurring in surnames examples of those
consonantal changes which do not violate the great
phonetic law that such changes can only occur
regularly within the same group, i.e. that a labial
cannot alternate with a palatal, or a dental with

32 SPELLING AND SOUND

either. It is thus that we find b alternating with
p, Hobbs and Hopps (Robert), Bullinger and Pullinger,
Fr. boulanger ; g with k, Cutlack and Goodlake (Anglo-
Sax. Guthlac), Diggs and Dix (Richard), Gipps and
Kipps (Gilbert), Catlin and Catling (Catherine) ; j with
ch, Jubb or Jupp and Chubb (Job) ; d with i(, Proud
and Prout (see p. 213), Dyson and Tyscm (Dionisia), and
also with th, Carrodus and Carruthers (a hamlet in
Dumfries). The alternation of c and ch or g and / in
names of French origin is dialectic, the c and g
representing the Norman-Picard pronunciation, e.g.
Campion for Champion, Gosling for Joslin. In some
cases we have shown a definite preference for one
form, e.g. Chancellor and Chappell, but Carpenter and
Camp. In English names c is northern, c/j southern,
e.g. Carlton, Charlton, Kirk, Church.

There are also a few very common vowel changes.
The sound er usually became ar, as in Barclay
(Berkeley), Clark, Darby, Garrard (Gerard), Jarrold
(Gerald), Harbord (Herbert), Jarvis (Gervase), Mar-
chant, Sargent, etc., while Lamed, our great-grand-
fathers' pronunciation of " learned," corresponds to
Fr. Littre. Thus Parkins is the same name as Perkins
(Peter), and these also give Parks and Perks, the former
of which is usually not connected with Park. To Peter,
or rather to Fr. Pierre, belong also Parr, Parry and
Perry, though Parry is generally Welsh (see p. 66). The
dims. Parrott, Perrott, etc., were sometimes nicknames,
the etymology being the same, for our word parrot
is from Fr. pierrot. To the freedom with which this
sound is spelt, e.g. in Herd, Heard, Hird, Hurd, we
also owe Purkiss ; cf . appurtenance for older apparten-
ance. The letter I seems also to exercise a demoralizing
influence on the adjacent vowel. Juliana^ became

APHESIS 33

Gillian, and from this, or from the masculine form
Julian, we get Jutland, Jottand, and the shortened Gell,
Gill (see p. 59), and Jull. Gallon, which Bardsley groups
with these, is more often a French name, from the
Old German Walo, or a corruption of the still commoner
French name Gotland, likewise of Germanic origin.

We find also such irregular vowel changes as Flinders
for Flanders, and conversely Packard for Picard.
Pottinger (see p. 35) sometimes becomes Pettinger as
Portugal gives Pettingall. The general tendency is
towards that thinning of the vowel that we get in mister
for master and Miss Miggs's mim for ma'am. Biddulph
for Botolf is an example of this. But in Royle for the
local Ryle we find the same broadening which has given
boil, a swelling, for earlier bile.

Among phonetic changes which occur with more or
less regularity are those called aphesis, epenthesis,
epithesis, assimilation, dissimilation, and metathesis,
convenient terms which are less learned than they
appear. Aphesis is the loss of the unaccented first
syllable, as in 'baccy and 'tater. It occurs almost
regularly in words of French origin, e.g. squire and
esquire, prentice and apprentice. When such double
forms exist, the surname invariably assumes the popular
form, e.g. Prentice, Squire. Other examples are
Bonner, i.e. debonair, Jenner, Jenoure, for Mid. Eng.
engenour, engineer, Color, Chaytor, Old Fr. acatour
(acheteur), a buyer —

"A gentil maunciple was ther of a temple,
Of which achatours mighte take exemple" (A. 567),

Spencer, dispenser, a spender, Stacey for Eustace,
Vick and Veck for Levick, i.e. I'evique, the bishop,
Merrick for Almeric, Pottinger for the obsolete potigar,
4

34 SPELLING AND SOUND

an apothecary, etc. The institution now known as
the "orspittle" was called by our unlettered fore-
fathers the " spital," hence the names Spittle and
Spiitlehouse . A well-known amateur goal-keeper has
the appropriate name Fender, for defender.

Many names beginning with n are due to aphesis,
e.g. Nash for atten ash, N alder, Nelms, Nock, alien oak,
Nokes, Nye, atten ey, at the island, N angle, atten angle,
Nind or Nend, atten ind or end. With these we may
compare Twells, at wells, and the numerous cases in
which the first part of a personal name is dropped, e.g.
Tolley, Bartholomew, Munn, Edmund, Pott, Philpot,
dim. of Philip (see p. 87) and the less common Facey,
from Boniface, and Loney, from Appolonia, the latter
of which has also given Applin.

When a name compounded with Saint begins with
a vowel, we get such forms as Tedman, St. Edmund,
Tohin, St. Aubyn, Toosey, St. Osith, Toomer, St. Omer,
Tooley, St. Olave ; cf . Tooley St. for St. Olave St. and
tawdry from St. Audrey. When the saint's name begins
with a consonant, we get, instead of aphesis, a telescoped
pronunciation, e.g. Selinger, St. Leger, Seymour, St.
Maur, Sinclair, St. Clair, Semark, St. Mark, Semple,
St. Paul, Simper, St. Pierre, Sidney, probably for St.
Denis, with which we may compare the educated
pronunciation of St. John. These names are all
of local origin, from chapelries in Normandy or
England.

Epenthesis is the insertion of a sound which facilitates
pronunciation, such as that of b in Fr. chambre, from
Lat. camera. The intrusive sound may be a vowel or a
consonant as in the names Henery, Hendry, perver-
sions of Henry." To Hendry we owe the northern

1 On the usual fate of this name in English, see p. 38.

EPITHESIS AND ASSIMILATION 35

Henderson, which has often coalesced with Anderson,
from Andrew. These are contracted into Henson and
Anson, the latter also from Ann and Agnes (see p. 88).
Intrusion of a vowel is seen in Greenaway, Hathaway,
heath way, Treadaway, trade (i.e. trodden) way, etc.,
also in Horniman, Alabone, Alban, Minister, minster,
etc. But epenthesis of a consonant is more common,
especially b or p after m, and d after n. Examples are
Gamble for the Anglo-Saxon name Gamel, Hamblin for
Hamlin, a double diminutive of Hamo, Simpson,
Thompson, etc., and Grindrod, green royd (see p. 111).
There is also the special case of n before g in such
names as Firminger (see p. 148), Massinger (p. 185),
Pottinger (p. 176), etc.

Epithesis, or the addition of a final consonant, is
common in uneducated speech, e.g. scholar d, gownd,
gar ding, etc. I say " uneducated," but many such
forms have been adapted by the language, e.g. sound,
Fr. son, and we have the name Kitching for kitchen.
The usual additions are -d, -t, or -g after n, e.g. Sim-
monds, Simon, Hammond, Hammant, Fr. Hamon, Hind,
a farm labourer, of which the older form is Hine
(p. 164), Collings for Collins, Jennings, Fr. Jeannin,
dim. of Jean, Aveling from the female name Avelina
or Evelyn. Neild is for Neil, Nigel. We have
epithetic -b in Plumb, the man who lived by the
plum-tree and epithetic -p in Crump (p. 24).

Assimilation is the tendency of a sound to imitate its
neighbour. Thus the d of Hud (p. 3) sometimes be-
comes t in contact with the sharp s, hence Hutson ;
Tomkins tends to become Tonkins, whence Tonks, if
the m and k are not separated by the epenthetic p,
Tompkins. In Hopps and Hopkins we have the b of
Hob assimilated to the sharp s and k, while in Hobbs

36 SPELLING AND SOUND

we pronounce a final -z. It is perhaps under the in-
fluence of the initial labial that Milson, son of Miles,
sometimes becomes Milsom, and Branson, son of
Brand, appears as Bransom.

The same group of names is affected by dissimilation,
i.e. the instinct to avoid the recurrence of the same
sound. Thus Ranson, son of Ranolf or Randolf , becomes
Ransom 1 by dissimilation of one n, and Hanson, son of
Han (see p. 3), becomes Hansom. In Sansom we have
Samson assimilated to Sanson and then dissimilated.
Dissimilation especially affects the sounds I, n, r.
Bullivant is found earlier as bon enfaunt (Goodchild),
just as a braggart Burgundian was called by Tudor
dramatists a bwgullian} Glazebrook (see p. 115) is
sometimes a dissimilation of Grazebrook (grass). Those
people called Salisbury who do not hail from Salesbury
in Lancashire must have had an ancestor de Sares-bury,
for such was the earlier name of Salisbury (Sarum).
A number of occupative names have lost the last
syllable by dissimilation, e.g. Pef-per for pepperer,
Armour for armourer. For further examples see

P- !55-

It may be noted here that, apart from dissimila-
tion, the sounds /, n, r, have a general tendency
to become confused, e.g. Phillimore is for Finamour
(Dearlove), which also appears as Finnemore and
Fenimore, the latter also to be explained from fen
and moor. Catlin is from Catherine. Balestier, a
cross-bow man, gives Bannister, and Hamnet and

1 So also Fr. rancon gives Eng. ransom. The French surname
Rancon is probably aphetic for Laurancon.

2 " When was Bobadil here, your captain ? that rogue, that
foist, that fencing burgullian " (Jonson, Every Man in his
Humour, iv. 2).

METATHESIS , 37

Hamlet both occur as the name of one of Shakespeare's
sons. Janico or Jenico, Fr. Janicot, little Johnny, is
now Jellicoe. We also get the change of r to / in
Hal, for Harry, whence Hallett, Hawkins (Halkins),
and the Cornish Hockin, Mai or Mol for Mary,
whence Malleson, Mollison, etc., and Pell for Pere-
grine. This confusion is common in infantile speech,
e.g. I have heard a small child express great satis-
faction at the presence on the table of " blackbelly
dam."

Metathesis, or the transposition of sound, chiefly
affects I and r, especially the latter. Our word
cress is from Mid. Eng. kers, which appears in Kar slake,
Toulmin is for Tomlin, a double dim., -el-in, of Tom,
Grundy is for Gundry, from Anglo-Sax. Gundred, and
Joe Gargery descended from a Gregory. Burnett is for
Brunei, dim. of Fr. brun, brown, and Thrupp is for
Thorp, a village (p. 122). Strickland was formerly
Stirkland, Cripps is the same as Crisp, from Mid. Eng.
crisp, curly. Prentis Jankin had —

" Crispe here, shynynge as gold so fyn "

(P. 304);

and of Fame we are told that —

" Her heer was oundie (wavy) and crips."

{House of Fame, iii. 296.)

Both names may also be short for Crispin, the etymo-
logy being the same in any case. Apps is sometimes
for asp, the tree now called by the adjectival name
aspen (cf. linden). We find Thomas atte apse in the
reign of Edward III.

The letters /, n, r also tend to disappear from no
other cause than rapid or careless pronunciation.

38 SPELLING AND SOUND

Hence we get Home for Holme (p. 1 17), Ferris for Ferrers,
a French local name, Batt for Bartholomew, Gatty for
Gertrude, Dallison for d'Alencon. The loss of -r- after
a vowel is also exemplified by Foster for Forster,
Pannell and Pennell for Pamell (sometimes), Gdtf/2 for
Ga^A (p. 124), and Mash for Marsh. To the loss of n
before s we owe such names as Pattison, Pater son, etc.,
son of Paton, the dim. of Patrick, and Robison for
Robinson, and also a whole group of names like Jenks
and Jinks for Jenkins (John), Wilkes for Wilkins,
Gilkes, Banks, Perks, Hawkes, Jukes for Judkins (p. 58),
etc. Here I should also include Biggs, which cannot
be connected with Bigg, for we do not find adjectival
nicknames with -s. It seems to represent Biggins,
from obsolete biggin, a building (p. 133).

The French nasal n often disappeared before r.
Thus denree, lit. a pennyworth, appears in Anglo-
French as darree. Similarly Henry became Harry,
except in Scotland, and the English Kings of that
name were always called Harry by their subjects. It
is to this pronunciation that we owe the popularity
of Harris and Harrison, and the frequency of Welsh
Parry as compared with Penry. A compromise be-
tween Henry and Harry is seen in Hanrott, from the
French dim. Henriot.

The initial h-, which we regard with such veneration,
is treated quite arbitrarily in surnames. We find a
well-known medieval poet called indifferently Occleve
and Hoccleve. Harnett is the same as Arnett, for
Arnold, Ewens and Hewens are both from Ewan, cog-
nate with Evan, of which Heaven is an imitative form.
In Hoskins, from the medieval Osekin, a dim. of some
Anglo-Saxon name such as Oswald (p. 69), the aspirate
has definitely prevailed. The Devonshire name Hexter

BABY PHONETICS 39

is for Exeter, Arbuckle is a corruption of Harbottle,
in Northumberland. The Old French name Ancel
appears as both Ansell and Hansell, and Eamshaw
exists side by side with H eamshaw (p. no).

The loss of h is especially common when it is the
initial letter of a suffix, e.g. Barnum for Barnham,
Haslam (hazel), Blenkinsop for Blenkin's hope (see
hope, p. 108), Newatt for Newhall, W indie for Wind
Hill, Tickell for Tick Hill, in Yorkshire, etc. Pickles
might be of similar origin, but its oldest form, Pigh-
keleys, seems to mean rather hill-meadows. A man
who minded sheep was once called a Shepard, or
Sheppard, as he still is, though we spell it shepherd.
The letter w disappears in the same way ; thus Green-
ish is for Greenwich, Horridge for Horwich, As-
pinall for Aspinwall, Millard for Millward, the mill-
keeper, Boxall for Boxwell, Caudle for Cauldwell (cold) ;
and the Anglo-Saxon names in -win are often confused
with those in -ing, e.g. Gooding, Goodwin ; Golding,
Goldwin ; Gunning, Gunwin, etc. In this way
Harding has prevailed over the once equally common
Hardwin.

Finally, we have to consider what may be called
baby phonetics, the sound-changes which seem rather
to transgress general phonetic laws. Young children
habitually confuse dentals and palatals, thus a child
may be heard to say that he has " dot a told." This
tendency is, however, not confined to children. My
own name, which is a very uncommon one, is a stum-
bling-block to most people, and when I give it in a
shop the scribe has generally got as far as Wheat-
before he can be stopped. We find both A still and
Askellior the medieval Asketil and Thurtle alternating
with Thurkle, originally Thurketil (p. 74, n). Berten-

40 SPELLING AND SOUND

shaw is found for Birkenshaw, birch wood, Bartley,
usually from Bartholomew, is sometimes for Berkeley,
and both Lord Bacon and Horace Walpole wrote Twit-
nam for Twickenham. Jeff cock, dim. of Geoffrey, be-
comes Jeffcott, while Glascock is for the local Glascott.
Here the palatal takes the place of the dental, as in
Brangwin for Anglo-Sax. Brandwine. Middlemas is
almost certainly for Michaelmas (see p. 89). We have
the same change in tiddlebat for stickleback, a word
which exemplifies another point in baby phonetics,
viz. the loss of initial s-, as in the classic instance
tummy. To this loss of s- we owe Pillsbury for the
local Spilsbury, Pink for Spink, an obsolete word
for the chaffinch, and, I think, Tout for Stout. The
name Stacey is found as Tacey in old Notts regis-
ters. On the other hand, an inorganic s- is some-
times prefixed, as in Sturgess for the older Turgis.
For the loss of s- we may compare Shakespeare's
parmaceti (1 Henry IV. i. 3), and for its addition
the adjective spruce, from Pruce, i.e. Prussia.

We also find the infantile confusion between th and
/, e.g. in Selfe, which represents a personal name Seleth,
probably from Anglo-Sax. scslft, bliss. Both Selve
and Selthe occur in the Hundred Rolls. Perhaps also
in Fripp for Thripp, a variant of Thrupp, for Thorp.
Bickerstaffe is the name of a place in Lancashire, of
which the older form appears in Bickersteth, and the
local name Throgmorton is spelt by Camden Frog-
morton.

Such are some of the commoner phenomena to be
noticed in connection with the spelling and sound of
our names. The student must always bear in mind
that our surnames date from a period when nearly the
whole population was uneducated. Their modern

INFLUENCE OF SPELLING 41

forms depend on all sorts of circumstances, such as
local dialect, time of adoption, successive fashions
in pronunciation and the taste and fancy of the
speller. They form part of our language, that is,
of a living and ever-changing organism. Some of
us are old enough to remember the confusion be-
tween initial v and w which prompted the judge's
question to Mr. Weller. The vulgar i for a, as in
" tike the kike," has been evolved within compara-
tively recent times, as well as the loss of final -g,
" skootin and huntin," in sporting circles. In the
word warmint —

" What were you brought up to be ? "
" A warmint, dear boy "

{Great Expectations, ch. xl.),

we have three phonetic phenomena, all of which have
influenced the form and sound of modern surnames,
e.g. in Winter, sometimes for Vinter, i.e. vintner,
Clark for Clerk, and Bryant for Bryan; and similar
changes have been in progress all through the history
of our language.

In conclusion it may be remarked that the personal
and accidental element, which has so much to do with
the development of surnames, releases this branch of
philology to some extent from the iron rule of the
phonetician. Of this the preceding pages give examples.
The 'name, not being subject as other words are to a
normalizing influence, is easily effected by the tradi-
tional or accidental spelling. Otherwise Fry would be
pronounced Free. The is short in Robin and long in
Probyn, and yet the names are the same (p. 62). Slofier
and Smoker mean a maker of slops and smocks re-
spectively, and Smale is an archaic spelling of Small,
the modern vowel being in each case lengthened by the

42 SPELLING AND SOUND

retention of an archaic spelling. The late Professor
Skeat rejects Bardsley's identification of Waring with
Old Fr. Garin or Warin, because the original vowel
and the suffix are both different. But Mainwaring,
which is undoubtedly from mesnil Warin (p. 142), shows
Bardsley to be right.

CHAPTER IV

BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON

" Talbots and Stanleys, St. Maurs and such-like folk, have led
armies and made laws time out of mind ; but those noble families
would be somewhat astonished — if the accounts ever came to be
fairly taken — to find how small their work for England has been
by the side of that of the Browns."

(Tom Brown's Schooldays, ch. i.)

Brown, Jones, and Robinson have usurped in popular
speech positions properly belonging to Smith, Jones
and Williams. But the high position of Jones and
Williams is due to the Welsh, who, replacing a string
of i^s by a simple genitive at a comparatively recent
date, have given undue prominence to a few very
common names ; cf. Davies, Evans, etc. If we con-
sider only purely English names, the triumvirate would
be Smith, Taylor, and Brown. Thus, of our three com-
monest names, the first two are occupative and the
third is a nickname. French has no regular equivalent,
though Dupont and Durand are sometimes used in this
way —

" Si Chateaubriand avait eu nom Durand ou Dupont, qui sait
si son Ginie du Christianisme n'eut point passe pour une capucinade? ' '

(F. Brunetiere)

The Germans speak of Mutter, Meyer and Schulze,
all rural names, and it is perhaps characteristic that
two of them are official. Meyer is an early loan from
Lat. major, and appears to have originally meant

43

44 BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON

something like overseer. Later on it acquired the
meaning of farmer, in its proper sense of one who farms,
i.e. manages on a profit-sharing system, the property
of another. It is etymologically the same as our
Mayor, Mair, etc. Schulze, a village magistrate, is
cognate with Ger. Schuld, debt, and our verb shall.

Taking the different classes of surnames separately,
the six commonest occupative names are Smith, Taylor,
Clark, Wright, Walker, Turner. If we exclude Clark,
as being more often a nickname for the man who could
read and write, the sixth will be Cooper, sometimes
spelt Cowper. The commanding position of Smith
is due to the fact that it was applied to all workers in,
or smiters of, metal. The modern Smiths no doubt
include descendants of medieval blacksmiths, white-
smiths, brownsmiths, locksmiths, and many others,
but the compounds are not common as surnames.
We find, however, Shoosmith, Shearsmith, and Nasmyth,
the last being more probably for earlier Knysmith, i.e.
knife-smith, than for nail-smith, which was supplanted
by Naylor. Grossmith I guess to be an accommodated
form of the Ger. Grobschmied, blacksmith, lit. rough
smith, and Goldsmith is very often a Jewish name
for Ger. Goldschmid. Wright, obsolete perhaps as a
trade name, has given many compounds, including
Arkwright, a maker of bins, or arks as they were once
called, Tellwright, a tile maker, and many others which
need no interpretation. The high position of Taylor
is curious, for there were other names for the trade,
such as Seamer, Shapster, Parmenter (p. 170), and
neither Tailleur nor Letailleur are particularly com-
mon in French. The explanation is that this name
has absorbed the medieval Teler and Teller, weaver,
ultimately belonging to Lat. tela, a web ; cf. the

OCCUPATIVE NAMES 45

very common Fr. Tellier and Letellier. In some
cases also the Mid. Eng. teygheler, Tyler, has been
swallowed up. Walker, i.e. trampler, meant a cloth
fuller, but another origin has helped to swell the
numbers of the clan —

" Walkers are such, as are otherwise called foresters. They are
foresters assigned by the King, who are walkers' within a certain
space of ground assigned to their care " (Cowel's Interpreter).

Cooper, a derivative of Lat. cupa or cuppa, a vessel,
is cognate with the famous French name Cuvier,
which has given our Cover, though this may also be
for coverer, i.e. tiler (see p. 155).

Of occupative names which have also an official
meaning, the three commonest are Ward, Bailey, and
Marshall. Ward, originally abstract, is the same word
asFr. garde. Bailey, Old Fr. bailif (bailli), ranges from
a Scottish magistrate to a man in possession. It is
related to bail and to bailey, a ward in a fortress, as in
Old Bailey. Bayliss appears to be from the Old French
nominative bailis (p. 9, n.). Marshall (p. 183) may
stand for a great commander or a shoeing-smith, still
called farrier-marshal in the army. The first syllable
is cognate with mare and the second means servant.
Constable, Lat. comes stabuli, stableman, has a similar
history.

The commonest local names naturally include none
taken from particular places. The three commonest
are Hall, Wood and Green, from residence by the great
house, the wood, and the village green. Cf . the French
names Lasalle, Dubois, Dupre. Hall has sometimes
given Hale and Hales (p. 21), and, in its Old French
translation, Sale. Next to these come Hill, Moore,
and Shaw (see p. no) ; but Lee would probably come

46 BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON

among the first if all its variants were taken into
account (p. 28).

Of baptismal names used unaltered as surnames
the six commonest are Thomas, Lewis, Martin, James,
Morris, Morgan. Here again the Welsh element is
strong, and four of these names, ending in -s, belong
also to the next group, i.e. the class of surnames formed
from the genitive of baptismal names. The frequent
occurrence of Lewis is partly due to its being adopted
as a kind of translation of the Welsh Llewellyn, but
the name is often a disguised Jewish Levi, and has
also absorbed the local Lewes. Next to the above
come Allen, Bennett, Mitchell, all of French introduction.
Mitchell may have been reinforced by Mickle, the
northern for Bigg. It is curious that these particu-
larly common names, Martin, Allen, Bennett (Benedict),
Mitchell (Michael), have formed comparatively few de-
rivatives and are generally found in their unaltered
form. Three of them are from famous saints' names,
while Allen, a Breton name which came in with the
Conquest, has probably absorbed to some extent the
Anglo-Saxon name Alwin (p. 72). Martin is in some
cases an animal nickname, the marten. Among the
genitives Jones, Williams, and Davi(e)s lead easily,
followed by Evans, Roberts, and Hughes, all Welsh in
the main. Among the twelve commonest names of
this class those that are not preponderantly Welsh are
Roberts, Edwards, Harris, Phillips, and Rogers. Another
Welsh patronymic, Price (p. 66), is among the fifty
commonest English names.

The classification of names in -son raises the difficult
question as. to whether Jack represents Fr. Jacques, or
whether it comes from Jankin, Jenkin, dim. of John. 1
1 See E. B. Nicholson, The Pedigree of Jack.

DISTRIBUTION OF NAMES 47

Taking Johnson and Jackson as separate names, we
get the order Johnson, Robinson, Wilson, Thompson,
Jackson, Harrison. The variants of Thompson would
put it a place or two higher. Names in -kins (see p. 48)
are of comparatively late appearance and are not so
common as those in the above classes. It would be
hard to say which English font-name has given the
largest number of family names. In Chapter V. will
be found some idea of the bewildering and multi-
tudinous forms they assume. It has been calculated,
I need hardly say by a German professor, that the
possible number of derivatives from one given name
is 6,000, but fortunately most of the seeds are abor-
tive.

Of nicknames Brown, Clark, and White are by far
the commonest. Then comes King, followed by the
two adjectival nicknames Sharp and Young.

The growth of towns and facility of communication
are now bringing about such a general movement
that most regions would accept Brown, Jones and
Robinson as fairly typical names. But this was not
always so. Brown is still much commoner in the north
than in the south, and at one time the northern Johnson
and Robinson contrasted with the southern Jones and
Roberts, the latter being of comparatively modern origin
in Wales (p. 43). Even now, if we take the farmer class,
our nomenclature is largely regional, 1 and the direc-
tories even of our great manufacturing towns represent
to a great extent the medieval population of the rural
district around them. The names Daft and Turney,
well known in Nottingham, appear in the county in
the Hundred Rolls. Cheetham, the name of a place
now absorbed in Manchester, is as a surname ten times

1 See Guppy, Homes of Family Names.

48 BROWN, JONES, AND ROBINSON

more numerous there than in London, and the same
is true of many characteristic north-country names,
such as the Barraclough, Murgatroyd, and Sugden
of Charlotte Bronte's Shirley. The transference of
Murgatroyd (p. in) to Cornwall, in Gilbert and Sulli-
van's Ruddigore, must have been part of the intentional
topsy-turvydom in which those two bright spirits
delighted. Diminutives in -kin, irom the Old Dutch
suffix -ken, are still found in greatest number on the
east coast that faces Holland, or in Wales, where they
were introduced by the Flemish weavers who settled
in Pembrokeshire in the reign of Henry I. It is in
the border counties, Cheshire, Shropshire, Hereford,
and Monmouth, that we find the old Welsh names
such as Gough, Lloyd, Onion (Enion), Vaughan (p. 216).
The local Gafip, an opening in the cliffs, is pretty well
confined to Norfolk, and Puddifoot belongs to Bucks
and the adjacent counties as it did in 1273. The
hall changes hands as one conquering race succeeds
another —

" Where is Bohun ? Where is de Vere ? The lawyer, the
farmer, the silk mercer, lies perdu under the coronet, and winks
to the antiquary to say nothing " (Emerson, English Traits),

but the hut keeps its ancient inhabitants. The de-
scendant of the Anglo-Saxon serf who cringed to
Front de Boeuf now makes way respectfully for Isaac
of York's motor, perhaps on the very spot where his
own fierce ancestor first exchanged the sword for the
ploughshare long before Alfred's day.

CHAPTER V

THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES

" I was bom in the year 1632, in the city of York, of a good
family, though not of that country, my father being a foreigner of
Bremen, who settled first at Hull. He got a good estate by mer-
chandize, and leaving off his trade, lived afterwards at York, from
whence he married my mother, whose relations were named Robin-
son, a very good family in that country, and from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer ; but by the usual corruption of words in
English, we are now called — nay, we call ourselves and write our
name — Crusoe " (Robirison Crusoe, ch. i.).

Any student of our family nomenclature must be
struck by the fact that the number of foreign names
now recognizable in England is out of all proportion
to the immense number which must have been intro-
duced at various periods of our history. Even the
expert, who is often able to detect the foreign name in
its apparently English garb, cannot rectify this dis-
proportion for us. The number of names of which the
present form can be traced back to a foreign origin is
inconsiderable when compared with the much larger
number assimilated and absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon.
The great mass of those names of French or Flemish
origin which do not date back to the Conquest or to
medieval times are due to the immigration of Protestant
refugees in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
It is true that many names for which Huguenot ancestry
is claimed were known in England long before the
Reformation. Thus, Bulteel is the name of a refugee
5 49

50 THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES

family which came from Tournay about the year 1600,
but the same name is found in the Hundred Rolls
of 1273. The Grubbe family, according to Burke, came
from Germany about 1450, after the Hussite persecu-
tion ; but we find the name in England two centuries
earlier, " without the assistance of a foreign persecu-
tion to make it respectable " (Bardsley, Dictionary of
English Surnames). The Minet family is known to
be of Huguenot origin, but the same name also figures
in the Hundred Rolls. The fact is that there was all
through the Middle Ages a steady immigration of
foreigners, whether artisans, tradesmen, or adven-
turers, some of whose names naturally reappear among
the Huguenots. On several occasions large bodies
of Continental workmen, skilled in special trades, were
brought into the country by the wise policy of the
Government. Like the Huguenots later on, they
were protected by the State and persecuted by the
populace, who resented their habits of industry and
sobriety.

During the whole period of the religious troubles
in France and Flanders, starting from about the middle
of the sixteenth century, refugees were reaching this
country in a steady stream ; but after the Revocation
of the Edict of Nantes they arrived in thousands, and
the task of providing for them and helping on their
absorption into the population became a serious prob-
lem. Among the better class of these immigrants was
to be found the flower of French intellect and enter-
prise, and one has only to look through an Army or
Navy list, or to notice the names which are prominent
in the Church, at the Bar, and in the higher walks of
industry and commerce, to realize the madness of
Louis XIV. and the wisdom of the English Government.

THE HUGUENOTS 51

Here are a few taken at random from Smiles' s History
of the Huguenots — Bosanquet, Casaubon, Chenevix
Trench, Champion de Crespigny, Dalbiac, Delane,
Dollond, Durand, Fonblanque, Gambier, Garrick, Layard,
Lefanu, Lefroy, Ligonier, Luard, Martineau, Palairet,
Perowne, Plimsoll, Riou, Romilly — all respectable and
many distinguished, even cricket being represented.
These more educated foreigners usually kept their
names, sometimes with slight modifications which do
. not make them unrecognizable. Thus, Bouverie,
literally " ox-farm," is generally found in its unaltered
form, though the London Directory has also examples
of the perverted Buffery. But the majority of the
immigrants were of the artisan class and illiterate.
This explains the extraordinary disappearance, in the
course of two centuries, of the thousands of French
names which were introduced between 1550 and 1700.
We have many official lists of these foreigners, and
in these lists we catch the foreign name in the very act
of transforming itself into English. This happens
sometimes by translation, e.g. Poulain became Colt,
Poisson was reincarnated as Fish, and a refugee bearing
the somewhat uncommon name Petitceil transformed
himself into Little-eye, which became in a few genera-
tions Lidley. But comparatively few surnames were
susceptible of such simple treatment, and in the great
majority of cases the name underwent a more or less
arbitrary perversion which gave it a more English
physiognomy. Especially interesting from this point
of view is the list of — " Straungers residing and dwel-
linge within the city of London and the liberties
thereof," drawn up in 1618. The names were prob-
ably taken down by the officials of the different wards,
who, differing themselves in intelligence and ortho-

52 THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES

graphy, produced very curious results. As a rule the
Christian name is translated, while the surname is
either assimilated to some English form or perverted
according to the taste and fancy of the individual
constable. Thus, John Garret, a Dutchman, is prob-
ably Jan Gerard, and James Flower, a milliner, born in
Rouen, is certainly Jaques Fleur, or Lafleur. John de
Cane and Peter le Cane are Jean Duquesne and Pierre
Lequesne (Norman quene, oak), though the former may
also have come from Caen. John Buck, from Rouen,
is Jean Bouc, and A braham Bushell, from Rochelle, was
probably a Boussel or Boissel. James King and John
Hill, both Dutchmen, are obvious translations of com-
mon Dutch names, while Henry Powell, a German, is
Heinrich Paul. Mary Peacock, from Dunkirk, and
John Bonner, a Frenchman, I take to be Marie Picot
and Jean Bonheur, while Nicholas Bellow is surely
Nicolas Belleau. Michael Leman, born in Brussels,
may be French Leman or Lemoine, or perhaps German
Lehmann.

To each alien's name is appended that of the
monarch whose subject he calls himself, but a republic
is outside the experience of one constable who leaves
an interrogative blank after Cristofer Switcher, born
at Swerick (Zurich) in Switcherland. The surname so
ingeniously created appears to have left no pedagogic
descendants. In some cases the harassed Bumble
has lost patience, and substituted a plain English name
for foreign absurdity. To the brain which christened
Oliver Twist we owe Henry Price, a subject of the King
of Poland, Lewis Jackson, a " Portingall," and Alex-
ander Faith, a steward to the Venice Ambassador,
born in the dukedom of Florence.

In the returns made outside the bounds of the city

PERVERSIONS OF FOREIGN NAMES 53

proper the aliens have added their own signatures, or
in some cases made their marks. Jacob Alburtt signs
himself as Jacob Elbers, and Croft Castell as Kraft
Kasstls. Harman James is the official translation of
Hermann Jacobs, Mary Miller of Marija Moliner, and
John Young of Jan le Jeune. Gyllyam Spease, for
Wilbert Spirs, seems to be due to a Welsh constable,
and Chrystyan Wyhelhames, for Cristian Welselm, looks
like a conscientious attempt at Williams. One registrar,
with a phonetic system of his own, has transformed
the Dutch Moll into the Norman-French Maule, and
has enriched his list with Jannacay Yacopes for Jantje
Jacobs. Lowe Luddow, who signs himself Louij Ledou,
seems to be Louis Ledoux. An alien who writes himself
Jann Eisankraott (Ger. Eisenkraut ?) cannot reasonably
complain at being transformed into John Isacrocke, but
the substitution of John Johnson for Jansen Van-
drusen suggests that this individual's case was taken at
the end of a long day's work.

These examples, taken at random, show how the
French and Flemish names of the humbler refugees
lost their foreign appearance. In many cases the
transformation was etymologically justified. Thus,
some of our Druitts and Drewetts may be descended
from Martin Druett, the first name on the list. But
this is probably the common French name Drouet or
Drouot, assimilated to the English Druitt, which we
find in 1273. And both are diminutives of Drogo, which
occurs mDomesdayBook, and is, through Old French, the
origin of our Drew. But in many cases the name has
been so deformed that one can only guess at the con-
tinental original. I should conjecture, for instance,
that the curious name Shoppee is a corruption of
Chappuis, the Old French for a carpenter, and that

54 THE ABSORPTION OF FOREIGN NAMES

Jacob Shophousey, registered as a German cutler, came
from Schaffhausen. In this particular region of Eng-
lish nomenclature a little guessing is almost excusable.
The law of probabilities makes it mathematically cer-
tain that the horde of immigrants included representa-
tives of all the very common French family names,
and it would be strange if Chappuis were absent.

This process of transformation is still going on in
a small way, especially in our provincial manufacturing
towns, in which most large commercial undertakings
have slipped from the nerveless grasp of the Anglo-
Saxon into the more capable and prehensile fingers of
the foreigner —

" Hilda then learnt that Mrs. Gailey had married a French

modeller named Canonges . . . and that in course of time the

modeller had informally changed the name to Cannon, because no

one in the five towns could pronounce the true name rightly."

(Arnold Bennett, Hilda Lessways, i. 5.)

This occurs most frequently in the case of Jewish
names of German origin. Thus, Lowe becomes Lowe
or Lyons, Meyer is transformed into Myers, Gold-
schmid into Goldsmith, Kohn into Cowan, Levy into
Lee or Lewis, Salamon into Salmon, Hirsch or Hertz
into Hart, and so on. Sometimes a bolder flight is
attempted —

" Leopold Norfolk Gordon had a house in Park Lane, and ever
so many people's money to keep it up with. As may be guessed
from his name, he was a Jew."

(Morley Roberts, Lady Penelope, ch. ii.)

The Jewish names of German origin which are now
so common in England mostly date from the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, when laws were passed
in Austria, Prussia and Bavaria to compel all Jewish

JEWISH NAMES 55

families to adopt a fixed surname. Many of them
chose personal names, e.g. Jakobs, Levy, Moses, for this
purpose, while others named themselves from their
place of residence, e.g. Cassel, Speyer (Spires), Hamburg,
often with the addition of the syllable -er, e.g. Dar-
mesteter, Homburger. Some families preferred de-
scriptive names such as Selig (see p 209), Sonnenschein,
Goldmann, or invented poetic and gorgeous place-names
such as Rosenberg,, Blumenthal, Goldberg, Lilienfeld.
The oriental fancy also showed itself in such names as
Edelstein, jewel, Gluckstein, 1 luck stone, Rubinstein,
ruby, Goldenkranz, golden wreath, etc. It is owing to
the existence of the last two groups that our fashion-
able intelligence is now often so suggestive of a wine-
list. Among animal names adopted the favourites
were Adler, eagle, Hirsch, hart, Lowe, lion, and Wolf,
each of which is used with symbolic significance in
the Old Testament.

1 Our Touchstone would seem also to be a nickname. The
obituary of a Mr. Touchstone appeared in the Manchester Guardian,
December 12, 1912.

CHAPTER VI

TOM, DICK AND HARRY

" Watte vocat, cui Thomme venit, neque Symme retardat,
Betteque, Gibbe simul, Hyhke venire jubent ;
Colle furit, quern Geffe juvat nocumenta parantes,

Cum quibus ad dampnum Wille coire vovet.
Grigge rapit, dum Dawe strepit, comes est quibus Hobbe,

Lorkyn et in medio non minor esse putat :
Hudde ferit, quem Judde terit, dum Tebbe minatur,
Jakke domosque viros vellit et ense necat."

(Gowee, On Wat Tyler's Rebellion.)

Gower's lines on the peasant rebels give us some
idea of the names which were most popular in the
fourteenth century, and which have consequently
impressed themselves most strongly on our modern
surnames. It will be noticed that one member of
the modern triumvirate, 1 Harry, or Hal, is absent.
The great popularity of this name probably dates from
a rather later period and is connected with the exploits
of Henry V. Moreover, all the names, with the possible
exception of Hud, are of French introduction and occur
rarely before the Conquest. The Old Anglo-Saxon
names did survive, especially in the remoter parts of
the country, and have given us many surnames (see
ch. vii.), but even in the Middle Ages people had a

1 The three names were not definitely established till the nine-
teenth century. Before that period they had rivals. French says
Pierre et Paul, and German Heinz und Kurtz, i.e. Heinrich and
Conrad.

56

MEDIEVAL FONT-NAMES 57

preference for anything that came over with the
Conqueror. French names are nearly all of German
origin, the Celtic names and the Latin names which
encroached on them having been swept away by the
Frankish invasion, a parallel to the wholesale adoption
of Norman names in England. Thus our name Harvey,
no longer usual as a font-name, is Fr. Herve, which
represents the heroic German name Hartwig, to the
second syllable of which belongs such an apparently
insignificant name as Wigg. The disappearance of
Latin names is not to be regretted, for the Latin
nomenclature was of the most unimaginative descrip-
tion, while the Old German names are more like those
of Greece. Thus Ger. Ludwig, which has passed into
most of the European languages (Louis, Lewis, Ludo-
vico, etc), is from Old High Ger. hlut-wig, renowned
in fight, equivalent to the Greek Clytomachus, with
one-half of which it is etymologically cognate.

Some of the names in Gower's list, e.g. Watte (p. 3),
Thomme, Symme, Geffe (p. 61), Wille, Jakke, are easily
recognized. Bette is for Bat, Bartholomew, a name
which has given Batty, Batten, Bates, Bartle (cf.
Bartlemas), Bartlett, Badcock, Badman, and many
other names, but its popularity is not easy to account
for. Gibbe is for Gilbert. Hick is rimed on Dick
(p. 62). Colle 1 is for Nicolas. Grig is for Gregory,
whence Gregson and Scottish Grier. Dawe, for David,
alternated with Day and Dow, which appear as
first element in many surnames, though Day has
another origin (p. 177) and Dow son sometimes belongs
to the female name Douce, sweet. Hobbe is a rimed

1 It is doubtful whether Scottish Colin is a dim. of this. It may
be the same Celtic name which has sometimes given the Irish
Cullen,

58 TOM, DICK AND HARRY

form from Robert. Lorkyn, or Larkin, is for Law-
rence, for which we also find Law, Lay, and Low,
whence Lawson, Lowson, Laycock, Locock, etc. For
Hudde see pp. 3, 75. Judde, from the very popular
Jordan, has given Judson, Judkins, and the con-
tracted Jukes. It is probable that Jordan (Fr.
Jourdain, Ital. Giordano) is an Old German personal
name mistakenly associated with the sacred river of
Palestine. Tebbe is for Theobald (p. 4).

Many people, in addressing a small boy with whom
they are unacquainted, are in the habit of using Tommy
as a name to which any small boy should naturally
answer. In some parts of Polynesia the natives speak
of a white Mary or a black Mary, i.e. woman, just as the
Walloons round Mons speak of Marie bon bee, a shrew,
Marie grognon, a Mrs. Gummidge, Marie quatre langues,
a chatterbox, and several other Maries still less politely
described. We have the modern silly Johnny for the
older silly Billy, while Jack Pudding is in German
Hans Wurst, John Sausage. Only the very commonest
names are used in this way, and, if we had no further
evidence, the rustic Dicky bird, Robin redbreast, Hob
goblin, Tom tit, Will o' the Wisp, Jack o' lantern, etc.,
would tell us which have been in the past the most
popular English font-names. During the Middle Ages
there was a kind of race among half a dozen favourite
names, the prevailing order being John, William,
Thomas, Richard, Robert, with perhaps Hugh as sixth.

Now, for each of these there is a reason. John, a
favourite name in so many languages (Jean, Johann,
Giovanni, Evan, Yves, Ivan, etc.), as the name of the
Baptist and of the favoured disciple, defied even the
unpopularity of our one King of that name. The
special circumstances attending the birth and naming

THE COMMONEST FONT-NAMES 59

of the Baptist probably supplied the chief factor in
its triumph. For some time after the Conquest
William led easily. We usually adopted the W- form
from the north-east of France, but Guillaume has also
supplied a large number of surnames in Gil-, which have
got inextricably mixed up with those derived from
Gilbert, Gillian (Juliana), and Giles. Gilman represents
the French dim. Guillemin, the local-looking Gilham
is simply Guillaume, and Wilmot corresponds to Fr.
Guillemot. The doubting disciple held a very in-
significant place until the shrine of St. Thomas of
Canterbury became one of the holy places of Christen-
dom. To Thomas belong Macey, Massie, Machin,
and Masson, dims, of French aphetic forms, but
the first two are also local, from Mace or Macey,
and the second two are sometimes alternative forms
of Mason. Robert and Richard were both popular
Norman names. The first was greatly helped by
Robin Hood and the second by the Lion-Heart. The
name Hugh was borne by several saints, the most
famous of whom in England was the child-martyr,
St. Hugh of Lincoln, said to have been murdered by
the Jews c. 1250. It had a dim. Huggin and also the
forms Hew and How, whence Hewett, Hewlett, Howitt,
Howlett, etc., while from the French dim. Huchon we
get Hutchin and its derivatives, and also Houchin.
Hugh also appears in the rather small class of names
represented by Littlejohn, Meiklejohn, 1 etc. We find

1 This formation seems to be much commoner in French. In
the " Bottin " I find Grandblaise, Grandcollot (Nicolas), Grandgeorge,
Grandgerard, Grandguillaume, Grandguillot, Grandjacques, Grand-
jean, Grandpenin (Pierre), Grandpierre, Grandremy, Grandvincent,
and Petitcolin, Petitdemange (Dominique), Petitdidier (Desiderius),
Petit-Durand, Petit-etienne (Stephen), Petit-Gerard, Petit-Hugue-
nin, Petitjean, Petitperrin, Petit-Richard.

60 TOM, DICK AND HARRY

Goodhew, Goodhue. Cf. Gaukroger, i.e. awkward Roger,
and Goodwillie. Goodrich and Goodrich may in some
cases belong to Richard. Only the very commonest
names occur in such compounds.

Most of the other names in Gower's list have been
prolific. We might add to them Roger, whence Hodge
and Dodge, Humfrey, which did not lend itself to many
variations, and Peter, from the French form of which
we have many derivatives (see p. 32), including per-
haps the Huguenot Perowne, Fr. Perron, but this
can also be local, du Perron, the etymology, Lat.
petra, rock, remaining the same.

The absence of the great names Alfred x and Edward
is not surprising, as they belonged to the conquered
race. Though Edward was revived as the name of a
long line of Kings, its contribution to surnames has
been small, most names in Ed-, Ead-, e.g. Ede, Eden,
Edison, Edkins, Eady, etc., belonging rather to the
once popular female name Eda or to Edith, though in
some cases they are from Edward or other Anglo-Saxon
names having the same initial syllable. James is a
very rare name in medieval rolls, being represented by
Jacob, and no doubt partly by Jack (see p. 46). It is —

" Wrested from Jacob, the same as Jago 2 in Spanish, Jaques in
French ; which some Frenchified English, to their disgrace, have
too much affected " (Camden).

It appears in Gimson, Jemmett, and the odd-looking
Gem, while its French' form is somewhat disguised in
Jeakes and Jex.

1 The name A lured is due to misreading of the older Alvred, v
being written « in old MSS. Allfrey is from the Old French form
of the name.

2 J ago is found, with other Spanish names, in Cornwall ; cf.
Bastian or Basten, for Sebastian.

FASHIONS IN FONT-NAMES 61

The force of royal example is seen in the popularity
under the Angevin kings of Henry, or Harry, Geoffrey
and Fulk, the three favourite names in that family.
For Harry see p. 38. Geoffrey, from Ger. Gottfried,
Godfrey, has given us a large number of names in
Geff-, Jeff-, and Giff-, Jiff-, and probably also Jebb,
Gepp and Jepson, while to Fulk we owe Fewkes,
Foakes, Fowkes, Vokes, etc., and perhaps in some cases
Fox. But it is impossible to catalogue all the popular
medieval font-names. Many others will be found
scattered through this book as occasion or association
suggests them.

Three names whose poor representation is sur-
prising are Arthur, Charles and George, the two great
Kings of medieval romance and the patron saint of
Merrie England. All three are fairly common in
their unaltered form, and we find also Arter. But
they have given hardly any derivatives, though
Atkins, generally from Ad-, i.e. Adam, may some-
times be from Arthur (cf. Bat for Bart, Matty for
Martha, etc.). Arthur is a rare medieval font-
name, a fact no doubt due to the sad fate of King
John's nephew. Its modern popularity dates from
the Duke of Wellington, while Charles and George were
raised from obscurity by the Stuarts and the Bruns-
wicks. To these might be added the German name
Frederick, the spread of which was due to the fame
of Frederick the Great. It gave, however, in French
the dissimilated Ferry, one source of our surnames
Ferry, 1 Ferris, though the former is generally local.

1 " For Frideric, the English have commonly used Frery and
Fery, which hath been now a long time a Christian name in the
ancient family of Tilney, and lucky to their house, as they report."

(Camden.)

62 TOM, DICK AND HARRY

If, on the other hand, we take from Gower's list a
name which is to-day comparatively rare, e.g. Gil-
bert, we find it represented by a whole string of sur-
names, e.g. Gibbs, Gibson, Gibbon, Gibbins, Gilbey,
Gilpin, Gipps, to mention only the most familiar.
From the French dim. Gibelot we get the rather rare
Giblett ; cf . Hewlett for Hew-el-et, Hamlet for Ham-el-et
(Hamo), etc.

In forming patronymics from personal names, it is
not always the first syllable that is selected. In Toll,
Tolley, Tollett, from Bartholomew, the second has sur-
vived, while Philpot, dim. of Philip, has given Potts.
From Alexander we get Sanders and Saunders. But,
taking, for simplicity, two instances in which the first
syllable survived, we shall find plenty of instruction
in those two pretty men Robert and Richard. We
have seen (p. 60) that Roger gave Hodge and Dodge,
which, in the derivatives Hodson and Dodson have
coalesced with names derived from Odo and the
Anglo-Sax. Dodda (p. 76). Similarly Robert gave
Rob, Hob 1 and Dob, and Richard gave Rick, Hick
and Dick. Hob, whence Hobbs, was sharpened into
Hop, whence Hopps. The diminutive Hopkin, passing
into Wales, gave Popkin, just as ap-Robin became
Probyn, ap-Hugh Pugh, ap-Owen Bowen, etc. In
the north Dobbs became Dabbs (p. 31). Hob also
developed another rimed form Nob (cf. to " hob-nob "
with anyone), whence Nobbs and Nabbs, the latter,
of course, being sometimes rimed on Abbs, from Abel
or Abraham. Bob is the latest variant and has
not formed many surnames. Richard has a larger
family than Robert, for, besides Rick, Hick and

1 I believe, however, that Hob is in some cases from Hubert,
whence Hubbard, Hibbert, Hobart, etc.

DERIVATIVES OF FONT-NAMES 63

Dick, we have Rich and Hitch, Higg and Digg. The
reader will be able to continue this genealogical tree
for himself.

The full or the shortened name can become a
surname, either without change, or with the addition
of the genitive -s or the word -son, 1 the former more
usual in the south, the latter in the north. To take
a simple case, we find as surnames William, Will,
Williams, Wills, Williamson, Wilson. From the short
form we get diminutives by means of the English
suffixes -ie or -y (these especially in the north), -kin,
and the French suffixes -el, -ot (often becoming -at in
English), -in, -on (often becoming -en in English).
Thus Willy, Wilkin, Willett. I give a few examples of
surnames formed from each class —

Ritchie (Richard), Oddy (Odo, whence also Oates),
Lambie ! (Lambert), Jelley (Julian) ;

Dawkins, Dawkes (David), Hawkins, Hawkes (Hal),
Gifkins (Geoffrey), Perkins, Perks (Peter), Rankin
(Randolf) ;

Gillett (Gil, see p. 59), Collett (Nicholas), Bartlett
(Bartholomew), Ricketts (Richard), Marriott, Marry at
(Mary), Elliott (Elias, see p. 85), Wyatt (Guy), Perrott
(Peter) ;

Collins (Nicholas), Jennings (John, see p. 95),
Copping (Jacob, see p. 9), Rawlin (Raoul, the French
form of Radolf, whence Rolf, Ralph, Relf), Paton
(Patrick), Sisson (Siss, i.e. Cecilia), Gibbons (Gilbert),
Beaton (Beatrice).

1 This suffix has squeezed out all the others, though Alice Johnson
is theoretically absurd. In Mid. English we find daughter, father,
mother, brother and other terms of relationship used in this way,
e.g., in 1379, Agnes Dyconwyfdowson, the wife of Dow's son Dick.
Dawbarn, child of David, is still found. See also p. 193.

2 Lamb is also, of course, a nickname ; cf. Agnew, Fr. agneau.

64 TOM, DICK AND HARRY

In addition to the suffixes and diminutives already
mentioned, we have the two rather puzzling endings
-man and -cock. Man occurs as an ending in several
Germanic names which are older than the Conquest,
e.g. Ashman, Harman, Coleman, and the simple Mann
is also an Anglo-Saxon personal name. It is some-
times to be taken literally, e.g. in Goodman, i.e. master
of the house (Matt. xx. n), Longman, Youngman,
etc. In Hickman, Roman (How, Hugh), etc., it may
mean servant of, as in Ladyman, Priestman, or may
be merely an augmentative suffix. In Coltman,
Runciman, it is occupative, the man in charge of the
colts, rouncies or nags. Chaucer's shipman —

"Rood upon a rouncy as he kouthe" (A. 390).

In Bridgeman, Pullman, it means the man who lived
near, or had some office in connection with, the bridge
or pool. But it is often due to the imitative instinct.
Dedman is for the local Debenham, and Lakeman for
Lakenham, while Wyman represents the old name
Wymond, and Bowman and Beeman are sometimes for
the local Beaumont (cf. the pronunciation of Bel voir).
But the existence in German of the name Bienemann
shows that Beeman may have meant bee-keeper.
Sloman is either imitative for Solomon or means the
man in the slough (p. 113), and Godliman is an old
familiar spelling of Godalming. We of course get
doubtful cases, e.g. Sandeman may be, as explained
by Bardsley, the servant of Alexander (p. 62), but
it may equally well represent Mid. Eng. sandeman,
a messenger, and Lawman, Layman, are rather to be
regarded as derivatives of Lawrence (p. 58) than
what they appear to be.

Many explanations have been given of the suffix

THE SUFFIX -COCK 65

-cock, but I cannot say that any of them have convinced
me. Both Cock and the patronymic Cocking are found
as early personal names. The suffix was added to the
shortened form of font-names, e.g. Alcock (Allen),
Hitchcock (Richard), was apparently felt as a mere
diminutive, and took an -s like the diminutives
in -kin, e.g. Willcocks, Simcox. In Hedgecock,
Woodcock, etc., it is of course a nickname. The
modern Cox is one of our very common names, and
the spelling Cock, Cocks, Cox, can be found repre-
senting three generations in the churchyard of Inver-
gowrie, near Dundee.

The two names Bawcock and Meacock had once a
special significance. Pistol, urged to the breach by
Fluellen, replies —

" Good bawcock, bate thy rage ! use lenity, sweet chuck"

[Henry V., iii. 2);

and Petruchio, pretending that his first interview with
Katherine has been most satisfactory, says —

" 'Tis a. world to see
How tame, when men and women are alone,
A meacock wretch can make the curstest shrew."

(Taming of the Shrew, ii. i.)

These have been explained as Fr. beau coq, which is
possible, and meek cock, which is absurd. As both
words are found as surnames before Shakespeare's
time, it is probable that they are diminutives which
were felt as suited to receive a special connotation,
just as a man who treats his thirst generously is
vulgarly called a Lushington. Bawcock, Bocock, can
easily be connected with Baldwin, while Meacock,
Maycock, belong to the personal name May or Mee,
shortened from the Old Fr. Mahieu (p. 86).
6

66 TOM, DICK AND HARRY

Although we are not dealing with Celtic names,
a few words as to the Scottish, Irish, and Welsh sur-
names which we find in our directories may be useful.
Those of Celtic origin are almost invariably patrony-
mics. The Scottish and Irish Mac, used like the Anglo-
Fr. Fitz-, means relative, and is ultimately related to
the -mough of Watmough (see p. 193) and to the word
maid. In MacNab, son of the abbot, and Mac-
Pherson, son of the parson, we have curious hybrids.
In Manx names, such as Quilliam (Mac William),
Kittip (Mac Philip), Clucas (Mac Lucas), we have
aphetic forms of Mac. The Irish 0' has the same
meaning as Mac, and is related to the first part of
Ger. Oheim, uncle, of Anglo-Sax. earn (see Eames,
p. 193), and of Lat. avus, grandfather. Oe or oye is
still used for grandchild in Scottish —

" There was my daughter's wean, little Eppie Daidle, my oe, ye
ken " (Heart of Midlothian, ch. iv.).

The names of the Lowlands of Scotland are pretty
much the same as those of northern England, with
the addition of a very large French element, due
to the close historical connection between the two
countries. Examples of French names, often much
corrupted, are Bethune (Pas de Calais), often cor-
rupted into Beaton, the name of one of the Queen's
Maries, Boswell (Bosville, Seine Inf.), Bruce (Brieux,
Orne), Comyn, Cumming (Comines, Nord), Grant (le
grand), Rennie (Rene), etc.

Welsh Ap or Ab, reduced from an older Map, ulti-
mately cognate with Mac, gives us such names as Pro-
byn, Powell (Howell, Hoel), Price (Rhys), Pritchard,
Prosser (Rosser), Pr other (Roderick), Bedward, Beddoes
(Eddowe), Blood (Lud, Lloyd), Bethell (Ithel), Benyon

CELTIC NAMES 67

(Enion), whence also Bunyan and the local-looking
Baynham. Onion and Onions are imitative forms of
Enion. Applejohn and Upjohn are corruptions of
Ap-john. The name Floyd, sometimes Flood, is due to
the English inability to grapple with the Welsh LI —

" I am a gentylman and come of Brutes [Brutus'] blood,

My name is ap Ryce, ap Davy, ap Flood."
(Andrew Boorde, Book of the Introduction of Knowledge, ii. 7.)

While Welsh names are almost entirely patronymic,
Cornish names are very largely local. They are dis-
tinguished by the following prefixes and others of less
common occurrence: Caer-, fort, Lan-, church, Pen-,
hill, Pol-, pool, Ros-, heath, Tre-, settlement, e.g.
Carthew, Lanyon, Penruddock, Polwarth, Rosevear,
Trethewy. Sometimes these elements are found com-
bined, e.g. in Penrose.

A certain number of Celtic nicknames and occupa-
tive names which are frequently found in England will
be mentioned elsewhere (pp. 173, 216). In Gilchrist,
Christ's servant, Gildea, servant of God, Gillies, servant
of Jesus, Gillespie, bishop's servant, Gilmour, big ser-
vant, Gilroy, red servant, we have the Highland "gillie."
Such names were originally preceded by Mac-, e.g.
Gilroy is the same as Macllroy ; cf . MacLean, for Mac-
gil-ian, son of the servant of John. To the same
class of formation belong Scottish names in Mai, e.g.
Malcolm, and Irish names in Mul, e.g. Mulholland, in
which the first element means tonsured servant,
shaveling, and the second is the name of a saint.

CHAPTER VII

GODERIC AND GODIVA

" England had now once more (a.d. iioo) a King born on her
own soil, a Queen of the blood of the hero Eadmund, a King and
Queen whose children would trace to Alfred by two descents.
Norman insolence mocked at the English King and his English
Lady under the English names of Godric and Godgifu." 1

(Freeman, Norman Conquest, v. 170.)

In dealing with surnames we begin after the Conquest,
for the simple reason that there were no surnames
before. Occasionally an important person has come
down in history with a nickname, e.g. Edmund Iron-
side, Harold Harefoot, Edward the Confessor ; but this
is exceptional, and the Anglo-Saxon, as a rule, was satis-
fied with one name. It is probable that the majority
of names in use before the Conquest, whether of English
or Scandinavian origin, were chosen because of their
etymological meaning, e.g. that the name Beornheard
(Bernard, Barnard, Burnett) was given to a boy in the
hope that he would grow up a warrior strong, just as
his sister might be called iEthelgivu, noble gift.
The formation of these old names is both interesting
and, like all Germanic nomenclature, poetic.

As a rule the name consists of two elements, and the
number of those elements which appear with great
frequency is rather limited. Some themes occur only

1 " Godricum eum, et comparem Godgivam appellantes "
(William of Malmesbury, Gesta Regum Anglorum).

68

FORMATION OF ANGLO-SAXON NAMES 69

in the first half of the name, e.g. Mthel-, whence ^Ethel-
stan, later Alston ; Mlf-, whence .ZElfgar, now Elgar
and Agar {Mthel- and Mlf- soon got confused, so that
Allvey and Elvey may represent either ^Ethelgifu or
jElfgifu, or, Latinized, Ethelgiva and Elgiva); Cuth-,
whence Cuthbeald, now Cobbold 1 ; Cyne-, whence Cyne-
beald, now Kimball and Kemble, both of which are
also local ; Folc-, whence Folcheard and Folchere, now
Folkard and Fulcher; Gun-, whence Gundred, now
Gundry and Grundy (p. 37) ; Os~, whence Osbert, Osborn,
Osgood. Other themes only occur as the second half
of the name. Such are -gifu, in Godgifu, i.e. Godiva,
whence Goodeve ; -lac in Guthlac, now Goodlake and
Goodluck (p. 197) ; -laf in Deorlaf, now Dearlove ;
-wacer in Euerwacer, now Earwaker.

Other themes, and perhaps the greater number,
may occur indifferently first and second, e.g. beald,
god, here, sige, weald, win, wulf or ulf. Thus we have
complete reversals in Bealdwine, whence Baldwin, and
Winebeald, whence Winbolt, Hereweald, whence Herald,
Harold, Harrod, and Wealdhere, whence Walter (p. 3).
With these we may compare Goldman and Mangold,
the latter of which has given Mangles. So also we have
Sigeheard, whence Siggers, and Wulfsige, now Wolsey,
Wulfnoth, now the imitative Wallnutt, and Beorht-
wulf, later Bardolph and Bardell. The famous name
Havelock was borne by the hero of a medieval epic,
"Havelock the Dane," but. Dunstan is usually for the
local -Dunston. . On the other hand, Winston is a per-
sonal name, Winestan, whence Winstanley. .
"- These examples show that the pre-Norman names
are by no means unrepresented in, the twentieth

"* This is also the origin of Cupples,a.tid probably of Keble and
Kibbles. It shares Cobbett and Cubitt with Cuthbeorht.

70 GODERIC AND GODIVA

century, but, in this matter, one must proceed with
caution. To take as examples the two names that
head this chapter, there is no doubt that Goderic and
Godiva are now represented by Goodrich and Goodeve,
but these may also belong to the small group mentioned
on p. 59, and stand for good Richard and good Eve.
Also Goodrich comes in some cases from Goodrich,
formerly Gotheridge, in Hereford, which has also
given Gutteridge. Moreover, it must not be forgotten
that our medieval nomenclature is preponderantly
French, as the early rolls show beyond dispute, so that,
even where a modern name appears susceptible of an
Anglo-Saxon explanation, it is often safer to refer it
to the Old French cognate, for the Germanic names
introduced into France by the Frankish conquerors, and
the Scandinavian names which passed into Normandy,
contained very much the same elements as our own
native names, but underwent a different phonetic
development. Thus I would rather explain Bawden,
Bowden, Boulden, Boden, and the dims. Body and
Bodkin, as Old French variants from the Old Ger.
Baldawin than as coming directly from Anglo-Saxon.
Boyden undoubtedly goes back to Old Fr. Baudouin.
Practically all the names given in Gower's lines
(p. 56), and many others to which I have ascribed a
continental origin, are found occasionally in England
before the Conquest, but the weight of evidence shows
that they were either adopted in England as French
names or were corrupted in form by the Norman
scribes and officials. To take other examples, our
Tibbald, Tibbies, Tibbs suggest the Fr. Thibaut rather
than the natural development of Anglo-Sax. Thiud-
beald, i.e. Theobald ; and Ralph, Relf, Roff, etc., show
the regular Old French development of Rjedwulf,

ANGLO-SAXON NICKNAMES 71

Radolf. Tibaut Wauter, i.e. Theobald Walter, who
lived in Lancashire in 1242, had both his names in
Old French.

As a matter of fact, the various ways of forming
nicknames, or descriptive names, are all used in the
pre-Conquest personal names. We find Orme, i.e. ser-
pent or dragon (cf. Great Orme's Head), Wulf, i.e.
Wolf, Hwita, i.e. White, and its derivative Hwiting,
now Whiting, Ssemann, i.e. Seaman, Bonda, i.e. Bond,
Leofcild, dear child, now Leifchild, etc. But, except
in the case of Orme, so common as the first element of
place-names, I doubt the survival of these personal
names into the surname period and regard White,
Seaman, Bond, Leifchild as rather new epithets of
Mid. English formation.. Whiting is of course Anglo-
Saxon, -ing being the regular patronymic suffix. Cf.
Browning, Benning, Dering, Dunning, Gunning,
Hemming, Kipping, Manning, Spalding, and many
others which occur in place-names. But not all
names in -ing are Anglo-Saxon, e.g. Baring is
German ; cf. Behring, of the Straits, while Jobling
is Fr. Jobelin, a double dim. of Job.

I will now give a few examples of undoubted sur-
vival of these Anglo-Saxon compounds, showing how
the suffixes have been corrupted and simplified.
Among the commonest of these suffixes are -beald,
-beorht, -cytel (p. 74, n.), -god, -heard, -here, -man, -mund,
-reed, -ric, -weald, -weard, -wine, 1 which survive in
Rumball and Rumbold (Rumbeald), Allbright* and
Allbutt (Ealdbeorht, i.e. Albert), Arkle (Earncytel), All-
good and Elgood (.<Elfgod), Everett (Eoforheard, i.e.

1 Bold, bright, kettle, good, strong, army, man, protection,
counsel, powerful, ruling, guard, friend.

2 Albert is of modern German introduction.

72 GODERIC AND GODIVA

Everard), Gunter (Gundhere), Harman (Hereman),
Redmond '(Raedmund), Aldred {Mthelrzzd or Ealdraed),
Aldridge, and the perversion Allwright (iEthelric
or Ealdric), Thorold (Thurweald) . and, through Fr.
Turold, Turrell, Terrell, and Tyrrell, Harward and
Harvard (Hereweard), Lewin (Leofwine). In popular
use some of these endings got confused, e.g. Rumbold
probably sometimes represents Rumweald, while Ken-
nard no doubt stands for Coenweard as well as for
Ccenheard. Man and mund were often interchanged
(p. 64) , so that from Eastmund come both Esmond and
Eastman. Gorman represents Gormund, and Almond
(p. 97) is so common in the Middle Ages that it must
sometimes be from ^Ethelmund.

Sometimes the modern forms are imitative. Thus
Allchin is for Alcuin, and Goodyear* Goodier and
Goodair represent Godhere, while Goodbeer, Godbehere,
Gotobed are classed by Bardsley under Godbeorht,
which has also given Godber. But in these three names
the face value of the words can also be accepted
(PP- x 53, 203, 206). Wisgar or Wisgeard has given the
imitative Whisker and Vizard, and, through French,
the Scottish Wishart, which is thus the same as the
famous Norman Guiscard. Garment and Rayment are
for Garmund and Regenmund, i.e. Raymond.

Other names which can be traced directly to the
group of Anglo-Saxon names dealt with above are
Elphick (^Elfheah), which in Norman French gave
Alphege, Elmer (^Elfmaer), Allnutt (iElfnoth), Alwin,
Elwin, Elvin (^Elfwine), Aylmer (^Ethelmasr), Aylward

1 Pure Anglo-Saxon, like the names of so many opponents of
English tyranny. Parnell is of course not Irish (p. 94).

2 This may, however, be taken literally. There is a German name
Gutjahr and a. Norfolk name Feaveryear.

ANGLO-SAXON SURVIVALS 73

(iEthelweard), Kenrick (Ccenric), Collard (Ceolheard),
Colvin (Ceolwine), Darwin (Deorwine), Edridge (Eadric),
Aldwin, Auden, and the patronymic Alder son (Eald-
wine), Falstaff (Fastwulf), F timer (Filumaer), Frewin
(Freowine), Garrard, Garrett, Jarrold (Gaerheard, Gser-
weald), but probably these are through French, Garbett
(Garbeald, which, in Italian, became Garibaldi), Gatliffe
(Geatleof), Goddard (Godheard), Goodliffe (Godleof),
Gunnell (Gunhild), Gunner L (Gunhere), Haines
(Hagene), Haldane (Haelfdene), Hastings (Haesten, the
Danish chief who gave his name to Hastings, formerly
Haestinga-ceaster), Herbert (Herebeorht), Herrick
(Hereric), Hildyard (Hildegeard) , Hubert, Hubbard,
Hobart, Hibbert (Hygebeorht), Ingram (Ingelram),
Lambert (Landbeorht), Lugard (Leofgar), Lemon
(Leofman), Leveridge (Leofric), Loveridge (Luferic),
Maynard (Maegenheard), Maidment (Maegenmund),
Rayner (Regenhere), Raymond (Regenmund), Reynolds
(Regenweald), Seabright (Sigebeorht and Saebeorht),
Sayers* (Saegaer), Sewell (Saeweald or Sigeweald),
Seward (Sigeweard), Turbot (Thurbeorht), Thorough-
good (Thurgod), Walthew (Waltheof), Warman (Wser-
mund), Wyberd (Wigbeorht), Wyman (Wigmund),
Willard (Wilheard), Winfrey (Winefrith), Ulyett and
Woollett (Wulfgeat), Wolmer (Wulfmaer), Woolridge
(Wulfric).

l . It is unlikely that this name is connected with gun, a word of
too late appearance. It may be seen over a shop in Brentford,
perhaps kept by a descendant of the thane" of the adjacent Gunners-"
bury. ,...';.

a The simple Sayer is also for " assayer," either of metals or of
meat and drink — " essayeur, an essayer; one that tasts, or takes
an essay ; and particularly, an officer in the mint, who touches every
kind of new coyne before it be delivered out " (Cotgravgj, Robert'
le gayer, goldsmith, was a London citizen c. 1300.

74 GODERIC AND GODIVA

In several of these, e.g. Fulcher, Hibbert, Lambert,
Reynolds, the probability is that the name came
through French. Where an alternative explanation is
possible, the direct Anglo-Saxon origin is generally the
less probable. Thus, although Colling occurs as an
Anglo-Saxon name, Collings is generally a variant of
Collins (cf. Jennings for Jennins), and though Ham-
mond is etymologically Haganmund, it is better
to connect it with the very popular French form
Hamon. Simmonds might come from Sigemund, but
is more likely from Simon with excrescent -d (see

P- 35).

In many cases the Anglo-Saxon name was a simplex
instead of a compound. The simple Cytel 1 survives
as Chettle, Kettle, Chell, Kell, whence Kelsey (see ey,
p. 116). Brand also appears as Braund, Grim is common
in place-names, and from Grima we have Grimes.
Cola gives Cole, the name of a monarch of ancient
legend, to be distinguished from the derivatives of
Nicolas (p. 57), Gunna is now Gunn, Serl has given
the very common Searle, and Wicga is Wigg. From
Haco we have Hack and the dim. Hackett.

To these might be added many examples of pure
adjectives, such as Freo, Free, Froda (prudent), Froude,
Goda, Good, Leof (dear), Leif, Leaf, Read (red), Read,
Reid, Reed, Rica, Rich, Rudda (ruddy), Rudd and Rodd,
Snel (swift, valiant), Snell, Swet, Sweet, etc., or epithets
such as Boda (messenger), Bode, Cempa (warrior),
Kemp, Cyta, Kite, Dreng (warrior), Dring, Eorl, Earl,
Godcild, Goodchild, Nunna, Nunn, Oter, Otter, Puttoc

1 Connected with the kettle or cauldron of Norse mythology. The
renowned Captain Kettle, described by his creator as a Welshman,
must have descended from some hardy Norse pirate. Many names,
in this chapter are Scandinavian.

MONOSYLLABIC NAMES 75

(kite), Puttock, Sasfugel, Seafowl, Spearhavoc, Spar-
hawk, Spark (p. 12), Tryggr (true), Triggs, Unwine
(unfriend), Unwin, etc. But most of these had died
out as personal names and, in medieval use, were
nicknames pure and simple.

Finally, there is a very large group of Anglo-Saxon
dissyllabic names, usually ending in -a, which appear
to be pet forms of the longer names, though it is not
always possible to establish the connection. Many of
them have double forms with a long and short vowel
respectively. It is to this class that we must refer
the large numbers of our monosyllabic surnames,
which would otherwise defy interpretation. Anglo-
Sax. Dodda gave Dodd, while Dodson's partner
Fogg had an ancestor Focga. Other examples are
Bacga, Bagg, Benna, Benn, Bota, Boot and dim.
Booty, Botta, Bott, whence Batting, Bubba, Bubb,
Budda, Budd, Bynna, Binns, Cobba, Cobb, Coda, Coad,
Codda, Codd, Cuffa, Cuff, Deda, Deedes, Duda, Dowd,
Duna, Down, Dunna, Dunn, Dutta, Dutt, whence Dut-
ton, Eada, Eade, Edes, etc., Ebba, Ebbs, Eppa, Epps,
Hudda, Hud, whence Hudson, Inga, Inge, Sibba,
Sibbs, Sicga, Siggs, Tata, Tate and Tait, Tidda, Tidd,
Tigga, Tigg, Toca, Tooke, Tucca, Tuck, Wada, Wade,
Wadda, Waddy, etc. Similarly French took from
German a number of surnames formed from shortened
names in -0, with an accusative in -on, e.g. Old Ger.
Bodo has given Fr. Bout and Bouton, whence our
Butt and Button.

But the names exemplified above are very thinly
represented in early records, and, though their exist-
ence in surnames derived from place-names (Dodsley,
Bagshaw, Bensted, Budworth, Cobham, Ebbsworth, etc.)
would vouch for them even if they were not recorded,

76 GODERIC AND GODIVA

their comparative insignificance is attested by the fact
that they form very few derivatives. Compare, for
instance, the multitudinous surnames which go back
to monosyllables of the later type of name, such as
John and Hugh, with the complete sterility of the
names above. Therefore, when an alternative deriva-
tion for a surname is possible, it is usually ten to one
that this alternative is right. Dodson is a simplified
Dodgson, from Roger (p. 62) ; Benson belongs to
Benedict, sometimes to Benjamin ; Cobbett is a dis-
guised Cuthbert or Cobbold (cf. Garrett, p. 17) ; Down
is usually local, at the down or dune ; Dunn is
medieval le dun, a colour nickname ; names in Ead-,
Ed-, are usually from the medieval female name
Eda (p. 60) ; Sibbs generally belongs to Sybilla or
Sebastian ; Tait must sometimes be for Fr. Tete,
probably from an inn sign ; Tidd is an old pet form
of Theodore ; and Wade is more frequently at wade,
i.e. ford. Even Ebbs and Efps are much more likely
to be shortened forms of Isabella, usually reduced to
lb or Ibbot (p. 94).

To sum up, we may say that the Anglo-Saxon ele-
ment in our surnames is much larger than one would
imagine from Bardsley's Dictionary, and that it
accounts, not only for names which have a distinctly
Anglo-Saxon suffix or a disguised form of one, but also
for a very large number of monosyllabic names which
survive in isolation and without kindred. In this
chapter I have only given sets of characteristic examples,
to which many- more might be added. It would be
comparatively easy, with some imagination and a
conscientious neglect of evidence, to connect the
greater number of our surnames with the Anglo-
Saxons. : Thus Honeyball might very well represent

"HIDEOUS NAMES" TJ

the Anglo-Sax. Hunbeald, but, in the absence of links,
it is better to regard it as a popular perversion of
Hannibal (p. 82). In dealing with this subject, the
via media is the safe one, and one cannot pass in one
stride from Hengist and Horsa to the Reformation
period.

Matthew Arnold, in his essay on the Function of
Criticism at the Present Time, is moved by the case of
poor Wragg, who was " in custody," to the following
wail —

" What a touch of grossness in our race, what an original short-
coming in the more delicate spiritual perceptions, is shown by the
natural growth amongst us of such hideous names — Higgiribottom,
Stiggins, Bugg 1 "

But this is the poet's point of view. Though there
may have been "no Wragg by the Ilissus," it is not a
bad name, for, in its original form Ragg, it is the first
element of the heroic Ragnar, and probably unrelated to
Raggett, which is the medieval le ragged. Bugg, which
one family exchanged for Norfolk. Howard, is the
Anglo-Saxon Bucga, a name no doubt borne by many
a valiant warrior. Stiggins, as we have seen (p. 12),
goes back to a name great in history, and Higgin-
bottom (p. 114) is purely geographical.

CHAPTER VIII

PALADINS AND HEROES

"Morz est Rollanz, Deus en ad 1'anme es ciels.
Li Emperere en Rencesvals parvient. . . .
Carles escriet : ' U estes vus, bels nies ?
U l'Arcevesques e li quens Oliviers ?
U est Gerins e sis cumpainz Geriers ?
Otes u est e li quens Berengiers ?
Ives e Ivories que j'aveie tant chiers ?
Qu'est devenuz li Guascuinz Engeliers,
Sansun li dux e Anseis li fiers ?
U est Gerarz de Russillun li vielz,
Li duze per que j'aveie laissiet ? ' " *

(Chanson de Roland, 1. 2397.)

It is natural that many favourite names should be
taken from those of heroes of romance whose exploits
were sung all over Europe by wandering minstrels.
Such names, including those taken from the Round
Table legends, usually came to us through French,
though a few names of the British heroes are Welsh,
e.g. Cradock from Caradoc (Caractacus) and Maddox
from Madoc. But the Round Table stories were

1 " Dead is Roland, God has his soul in heaven. The Emperor
arrives at Roncevaux. . . . Charles cries : ' Where are you, fair
nephew ? Where the archbishop (Turpin) and Count Oliver ?
Where is Gerin and his comrade Gerier ? Where is Odo and count
Berenger ? Ivo and Ivory whom I held so dear ? What has become
of the Gascon Engelier ? Samson the duke and Anseis the proud ?
Where is Gerard of Roussillon the old, the twelve peers whom I
had left ->.'"

78

THE ROUND TABLE 79

versified much later than the true Old French Chansons
de Geste, which had a basis in the national history, and
not many of Arthur's knights are immortalized as sur-
names. We have Tristram, Lancelot, whence Lance,
Percival, Gawain in Gavin, and Kay. But the last
named is, like Key, more usually from the word we now
spell " quay," though Key and Keys can also be shop-
signs, as of course Crosskeys is. Linnell and Lyell are
for Lionel, as Neil, 1 Neal for Nigel. The ladies have
fared better. Vivian, which is sometimes from the
masculine Vivien, is found in Dorset as Vye. and Isolt
and Guinevere, which long survived as font-names in
Cornwall, have given several names. From Isolt
come Isard, Isitt, Izzard, Izod, and many other forms,
while Guinever appears as Genever, Jennifer, Gaynor,
Gilliver, Gulliver, i and the imitative Juniper. It is
probably also the source of Genn and Ginn, though
these may come also from Eugenia or from Jane.
The later prose versions of the Arthurian stories, such
as those of Malory, are full of musical and picturesque
names like those used by Mr. Maurice Hewlett, but
this artificial nomenclature has left no traces in our
surnames.

Of the paladins the most popular was Roland or
Rowland, who survives as Rome, Rowlinson, Rolls,
Rollit, etc., sometimes coalescing with the derivations
of Raoul, another epic hero. Gerin or Geri gave Geary,
and Oates is the nominative (see p. 80, n. 1) of Odo, an
important Norman name. Berenger appears as Bar-
ringer and Bellinger (p. 36). The simple Oliver is

1 But the Scottish Neil is a Gaelic name often exchanged for the
unrelated Nigel.

2 There is also an Old Fr. Gulafre which will account for some
of the Gullivers.

80 PALADINS AND HEROES

fairly common, but it also became Oilier and Olver.
But perhaps the largest surname family connected
with the paladins is derived from the Breton Ives
or Ivon, 1 whose name appears in that of two English
towns. It is the same as Welsh Evan, and the Yvain
of the Arthurian legends, and has given us Ives,
Ivison, Ivatts, etc. The modern surname Ivory is
usually an imitative form of Every, or Avery (p. 82).
Gerard has a variety of forms in Ger- and Gar-, Jer-
and Jar- (see p. 32). The others do not seem to have
survived, except the redoubtable Archbishop Turpin,
whose fame is probably less than that of his name-
sake Dick.

Besides the paladins, there are many heroes of
Old French epic whose names were popular during
the two centuries that followed the Conquest. Ogier
le Danois, who also fought at Roncevaux, has given us
Odgers ; Fierabras occasionally crops up as Firebrace ;
Aimeri de Narbonne, from Almaric, 2 whence Ital.
Amerigo, is in English Amery, Emery, Imray, etc. ;
Renaud de Montauban is represented by Reynolds
(p. 74) and Reynell. The famous Boon de Mayence
may have been an ancestor of Lorna, and the equally
famous Garin, or Warin, de Monglane has given us
Waring, sometimes Warren, and the diminutives Gar-
nett and Warnett. He shares Gerring with the paladin
Gerin. Milo becomes Miles, with dim. Millett, and
some of its derivatives have got mixed with the local
Mill and the font-name Millicent. Amis and Amiles
were the Orestes and Pylades of Old French epic and

1 A number of Old French names had an accusative in -on or
-ain. Thus we find Otes, Oton, Ives, Ivain, and feminines such as
lie, Idain, all of which survive'as English surnames.

2 A metathesis of Amalric, which is found in Anglo-Saxon.

THE CHANSONS DE GESTE 81

the former survives as Ames, A mies, and Amos. We have
alsoBemerfrom Bernier, Ba^rawfromBertran, F arrant,
with many variants, from Ferrand, i.e., Ferdinand,
Terry and Terriss from Thierry, the French form of Ger.
Dietrich (Theodoric), which, through Dutch, has given
also Derrick. Gamier, from Ger. Werner, is our Garner
and Warner, though these have other origins (pp. 154,
185). Dru, from Drogo, has given Drew, with dim.
Druitt (p. 53), and Druce, though the latter may also
come from the town of Dreux. Walrond and Waldron
are for Waleran, usually Galeran, and King Pippin
had a retainer named Morant. Saint Leger appears as
Ledger, Lediard, etc., and sometimes in the shortened
Legg. Among the heroines we have Orbell from
Orable, while Blancheflour may have suggested Lilly-
white ; but the part played by women in the Chansons
de Geste was insignificant.

As this element in our nomenclature has hitherto
received no attention, it may be well to add a few more
examples of names which occur very frequently in the
Chansons de Geste and which have undoubted repre-
sentatives in modern English. Allard was one of the
Four Sons of Aymon. The name is etymologically
identical with Aylward (p. 73), but in the above form
has reached us through French. Acard or Achard is
represented by Haggard, Haggett, and Hatchard,
Hatchett, though Haggard probably has another origin
(p. 221). Harness is imitative for Harnais, Herneis.
Clarabutt is for Clarembaut ; cf. Archbutt for Archem-
baut, the Old French form of Archibald, Archbold.
Durrani is Durand, still a very common French sur-
name. Ely is Old Fr. Elie, i.e. Elias (p. 85), which
had the dim. Elyot. 1 We also find Old Fr. Helye,
1 For other names belonging to this group see p. 85

7

82 PALADINS AND HEROES

whence our Healey. Enguerrand is telescoped to
Ingram, though this may also come from the English
form Ingelram. Fawkes is the Old Fr. Fauques,
nominative (see p. 80, n. 1) of Faucon, i.e. falcon.
Galpin is contracted from Galopin, a famous epic thief,
but it may also come from the common noun galopin —

" Galloppins, under cookes, or scullions in monasteries."

(Cotgrave.)

In either case it means a " runner." Henfrey is
from Heinfrei or Hainfroi, identical with Anglo-Sax.
Haganfrith, and Manser from Manesier. Neame (p. 193)
may sometimes represent Naime, the Nestor of Old
French epic and the sage counsellor of Charlemagne.
Richer, from Old Fr. Richier, has generally been
absorbed by the cognate Richard. Aubrey and Avery
are from Alberic. An unheroic name like Siggins may
be connected with several heroes called Seguin.

Nor are the heroes of antiquity altogether absent.
Along with Old French national and Arthurian epics
there were a number of romances based on the legends of
Alexander, Csesar, and the tale of Troy. Alexander, or
Saunder, was the favourite among this class of names,
especially in Scotland. Cayzer was generally a nick-
name, its later form Ccesar being due to Italian in-
fluence, 1 and the same applies to Hannibal* when it is
not an imitative form of the female name Annabel,
also corrupted into Honeybatt. Both Dionisius and
Dionisia were once common, and have survived as
Dennis, Dennett, Denny, and from the shortened Dye

1 Julius Cesar, physician to Queen Elizabeth, was a Venetian
(Bardsley).

2 But the frequent occurrence of this name and its corruptions
in Cornwall suggest that it may really have been introduced by
Carthaginian sailors.

ANTIQUE NAMES 83

we get Dyson. But this Dionisius was the patron
saint of France. Apparent names of heathen gods
and goddesses are almost always due to folk-etymology,
e.g. Bacchus is for bake-house, and the ancestors of
Mr. Wegg's friend Venus came from Venice. Virgil
is of Italian origin and Homer is Old Fr. heaumier,
helmet maker.

CHAPTER IX

THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR

" ' Now you see, brother Toby,' he would say, looking up, ' that
Christian names are not such indifferent things ; — had Luther here
been called by any other name but Martin, he would have been
damn'd to all eternity' " (Tristram Shandy, ch. xxxv).

The use of biblical names as font-names does not date
from the Puritans, nor are surnames derived from
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob necessarily Jewish. The
Old Testament names which were most popular among
the medieval peasants from whom we nearly all spring
were naturally those connected with the most pic-
turesque episodes of sacred history. Taking as an
example the father of all men, we find derived from
the name Adam the following : Adams, Adamson,
Adcock, Addis, Addison, Adds, Addy, Ade, Ades, Adey,
Adie, Ady, Addey, Aday, Adee, Addyman, Adkin,
Adkins, Adkinson, Adnett, 1 Adnitt, Adnet, Adnot,
Atkin, Atkins, Atkinson, and the northern Aitken, etc
This list, compiled from Bardsley's Dictionary of
Surnames, is certainly not exhaustive. Probably
Taddy is rimed on Addy as Taggy is on Aggy (Agnes).
To put together all the derivatives of John or Thomas
would be a task almost beyond the wit of man. Names
in Abb-, App-, may come from either Abraham or Abel,
and from Abbs we also have Nabbs. Cain was of

1 Adenet (little Adam) le Roi was an Old French epic hero.
«4

OLD TESTAMENT NAMES 85

course unpopular. The modern Cain, Cane, Kain re-
presents the town of Caen or Norman quesne, quene, an
oak. Moses appears in the French form Moyes (Moi'se)
as early as 1273, and still earlier as Moss. Of the patri-
archs the favourites were perhaps Jacob and Joseph,
the name Jessop from the latter having been influenced
by Ital. Giuseppe. Benjamin has sometimes given Ben-
son and Bennett, but these are generally for Benedict
(p. 46). The Judges are poorly represented, except
Samson, a name which has obviously coalesced with
the derivatives of Samuel. David had, of course, an
immense vogue, especially in Wales (for some of its
derivatives see p. 57), and Solomon was also popu-
lar, the modern Salmon not always being a Jewish
name. But almost the favourite Old Testament
name was Elijah, Elias, which, usually through its
Old French form Elie, whence Ely, is the parent of
Ellis, Elliot, and many other names in El-, some of
which, however, have to be shared with Ellen and
Alice (p. 95). Job was also popular, and is easily
recognized in Jobson, Jobling, etc., but less easily
in Chubb (p. 32) and Jufip. The intermediate form
was the obsolete Joppe. Among the prophetic writers
Daniel was an easy winner, Dann, Dance (p. 10),
Dannatt, Dancock, etc. Balaam is an imitative spelling
of the local Baylham.

In considering these Old Testament names it must
be remembered that the people did not possess the
Bible in the vernacular. The teaching of the parish
priests made them familiar with selected episodes, from
which they naturally took the names which appeared
to contain the greatest element of holiness or of war-
like renown. It is probable that the mystery plays
were not without influence ; for the personal name

86 THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR

was not always a fixed quantity, and just as John
Carter, moving from Bingham to Nottingham, might
become John Bingham, so Humfrey, after playing the
part of Abel, might find his name changed accordingly.
This would apply with still more force to names
taken from the legends of saints and martyrs on
which the miracle plays were based. We even find
the names Saint, Martyr 1 and Postill, the regular
aphetic form of apostle (p. 33), just as we find King
and Pope. Camden, speaking of the freedom with
which English names are formed, quotes a Dutchman,
who —

" When he heard of English men called God and Devil, said,
that the English borrowed names from all things whatsoever, good
or bad."

The medieval name Godde may of course be for
Good, Anglo-Sax. Goda, which is the first element in
Goddard, Godfrey, etc., but Ledieu is common enough in
France. The name seems to be obsolete, unless it is
disguised as Goad. The occurrence in medieval rolls
of Diabolus and le Diable shows that Deville need not
always be for de Eyville. There was probably much
competition for this important part, and the name
would not be always felt as uncomplimentary. The
surname Teufel is found in German.

Coming to the New Testament, we find the four
Evangelists strongly represented, especially the first
and last. Matthew appears not only in an easily
recognizable form, e.g. in Matheson, but also as
Mayhew and Mayo, Old Fr. Mahieu. From the latter
form we have the shortened May and Mee, whence
Mayes, Makins, Meakin, Meeson, and sometimes
Mason. Mark is one of the sources of March
1 This may also be from Fr. le martre, the marten.

NEW TESTAMENT NAMES 87

(p. go), as Luke is of Luck, whence Lucock, Luckett,
etc., though we more often find the learned form
Lucas. Of John there is no need to speak. Of
the apostles the great favourites, Simon, or Peter,
John, and Bartholomew have already been men-
tioned. Almost equally popular was Philip, whence
Philp, Phipps, Phelps, and the dim. Philpot. Here
also belongs Filkins. Andrew nourished naturally in
Scotland, its commonest derivative being Anderson,
while Dendy is for the rimed form Dandy. Paul has
of course had a great influence and is responsible
for Pawson or Porson, Pawling, Poison, Pollett, and most
names in Pol-. 1 It is also, in the form Powell, assimi-
lated to the Welsh Ap Howel. Paul is regularly
spelt Poule by Chaucer, and St. Paul's Cathedral is
often called Powles in Tudor documents. Paul's com-
panions are poorly represented, for Barnby is local,
while names in Sil- and Sel- come from shortened
form of Cecil, Cecilia, and Silvester. Another great
name from the Acts of the Apostles is that of
the protomartyr Stephen, among the numerous
derivatives of which we must include Stennett and
Stimpson.

Many non-biblical saints whose names occur very
frequently have already been mentioned, e.g. Antony,
Bernard, Gregory, Martin, Lawrence, Nicholas, etc.
To these may be added Augustine, or Austin, Chris-
topher, or Kit, with the dim. Christie and the imita-
tive Chrystal, Clement, whence a large family of names
in Clem-, Gervase or Jarvis, Jerome, sometimes repre-
sented by Jerram, and Theodore, or Tidd (cf . Tibb from
Theobald), who becomes in Welsh Tudor. Vincent has
given Vince, Vincey and Vincett, and Baseley, Blazey

1 This does not of course apply to Cornish names in Pol (p. 67).

88 THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR

are from Basil and Blaise. The Anglo-Saxon saints
are poorly represented, though probably most of them
survive in a disguised form, e.g. Price is sometimes
for Brice, Cuthbert has sometimes given Cubitt and
Cobbett, and also Cutis. With an intrusive r 1 it has
given Crewdson and Cruden. Bottle sometimes repre-
sents Botolf, Neate is for Neot, and Chad survives as
Cade and in many local names, e.g. Chadwick. The
Cornish Tangye is from the Breton St. Tanneguy. The
Archangel Michael has given one of our commonest
names, Mitchell (p. 46). This is through French, but
we have also the contracted Miall 8 —

"At Michael's term had many a trial,
Worse than the dragon and St. Michael."

(Hudibras, III. ii. 51.)

From Gabriel we have Gabb, Gabbett, etc. The common
rustic pronunciation Gable has given Cable (p. 32) .

Among female saints we find Agnes, pronounced
Annis, the derivatives of which have become confused
with those of Anne, or Nan, Catherine, whence Catt,
Catlin, etc., Cecilia, Cicely, whence Sisley, and of course
Mary and Margaret. For these see p. 93. St. Bride,
or Bridget, survives in Kirkbride.

A very interesting group of surnames are derived
from font-names taken from the great feasts of the
Church, date of birth or baptism, 5 etc. These are
more often French or Greco-Latin than English, a fact
to be explained by priestly influence. Thus Christmas

1 The letter r, so slightly sounded in English, is very irresponsible.
It disappears in Fanny (Frances) and Biddy (Bridget), but intrudes
itself in the scruff, formerly scuft, of the neck, and probably in
Scroggins (p. in).

2 Cf. Vialls from Vitalis, a saint's name.

3 Names of this class were no doubt also sometimes given to
foundlings.

FEAST-DAYS 89

is much less common than Noel or Now ell, but we also
find Midwinter (p. 23) and Yule. Easter has a local origin
(from a place in Essex) and also represents Mid. Eng.
estre, a word of very vague meaning for part of a build-
ing, originally the exterior, from Lat. extra. It sur-
vives in Fr. les Sires d'une maison. Hester, to which
Bardsley gives the same origin, I should rather con-
nect with Old Fr. hestre (hfare), a beech. However
that may be, the Easter festival is represented in our
surnames by Pascall, Cornish Pascoe, and Pask, Pash,
Pace, Pack. Patch, formerly a nickname for a jester
(p. 187), from his motley clothes, is also sometimes a
variant of Pash. And the dim. Patchett has become
confused with Padgett, from Padge, a rimed form of
Madge. Pentecost has been corrupted into Pancoast
and the local-looking Pankhurst. Michaelmas is now
Middlemas (see p. 40), and Tiffany is an old name for
Epiphany. It comes from Greco-Latin theophania
(while Epiphany represents epiphania), which gave
the French female name Tiphaine, whence our Tiffin.
Lammas (loaf mass) is also found as a personal name,
but there is a place called Lammas in Norfolk. We
have compounds of day in Halliday or Holiday, Hay-
day, for high day, Loveday, a day appointed for re-
conciliations, and Hockaday, for a child born during
Hocktide, which begins on the 15th day after Easter.
It was also called Hobday, though it is hard to say
why, hence the name Hobday, unless this is to be
taken as the day, or servant (see p. 177),' in the service
of Hob ; cf . Hobman.

The days of the week are puzzling, the only one at
all common being Munday, though most of the others
are found in earlier nomenclature. We should rather
expect special attention to be given to Sunday and

go THE BIBLE AND THE CALENDAR

Friday, and, in fact, Sonntag and Freytag are by far the
most usual in German, while Dimanche and its per-
versions are common in France, and Vendredi also
occurs. This makes me suspect some other origin,
probably local, for Munday, the more so as Fr. Di-
manche, Demange, etc., is often for the personal name
Dominicus, the etymology remaining the same as
that of the day-name, the Lord's day. Parts of the
day seem to survive in Noon, Eve, and Morrow, but
Noon is local, Fr. Noyon (cf. Moon, earlier Mohun,
from Moyon), Eve is the mother of mankind, and
Morrow is for moor-row, i.e. the row of cottages on
the moor.

We find the same difficulty with the names of the
months. Several of these are represented in French,
but our March has four other origins, from March
in Cambridgeshire, from march, a boundary, from
marsh, or from Mark ; while May means in Mid.
English a maiden (p. 195), and is also a dim. of
Matthew (p. 86). The names of the seasons also
present difficulty. Spring must often correspond to
Fr. La Fontaine, but we find also Lent, 1 the old
name for the season, and French has Printemps.
Summer and Winter a are found very early as personal
names, as are also Frost and Snow s ; but why always
Summers or Somers with s and Winter without ?
The latter has no doubt in many cases absorbed
Vinter, vintner (see p. 41), but this will not account
for the complete absence of genitive forms. And
what has become of the other season ? We should

1 The cognate Ger. Lenz is fairly common, hence the frequency
of Lent in America.

2 Winter was one of Hereward's most faithful comrades.

* Two other common personal names were Flint and Steel.

MONTH NAMES 91

not expect to find the learned word autumn, but neither
Fall nor Harvest, the true English equivalents, are at
all common as surnames.

I regard this group, days, months, seasons, as one of
the least clearly accounted for in our nomenclature,
and cannot help thinking that the more copious
examples which we find in French and German are
largely distorted forms due to the imitative instinct,
or are susceptible of other explanations. This is
certainly true in some cases, e.g. Fr. Mars is the
regular French development of Medardus, 1 a saint
to whom a well-known Parisian church is dedicated ;
and the relationship of Janvier to Janus may be via
the Late Lat. januarius, for janitor, a doorkeeper.

1 This was the saint who, according to Ingoldsby, lived largely on
oysters obtained by the Red Sea shore. At his church in Paris were
performed the ' miracles ' of the Quietists in the seventeenth century.
When the scenes that took place became a scandal, the government
intervened, with the result that a wag adorned the church door
with the following :

"De par le Roi, defense a Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu."

CHAPTER X

METRONYMICS

" During the whole evening Mr. Jellyby sat in a corner with his
head against the wall, as if he were subject to low spirits."

(Bleak House, ch. iv.)

Bardsley first drew attention to the very large
number of surnames derived from an ancestress. His
views have been subjected to much ignorant criticism
by writers who, taking upon themselves the task of
defending medieval virtue, have been unwilling to
accept this terrible picture of the moral condition of
England, etc. This anxiety is misplaced. There are
many reasons, besides illegitimacy, for the adoption
of the mother's name. In medieval times the children
of a widow, especially posthumous children, would
often assume the mother's name. Widdowson itself
is sufficiently common, and is usually to be taken liter-
ally, though, like Widdows, it is sometimes from Wido,
i.e. Guy. Orphans would be adopted by female rela-
tives, and a medieval Mrs. Joe Gargery would probably
have impressed her own name rather than that of her
husband on a medieval Pip. In a village which counted
two Johns or Williams, and few villages did not, the
children of one would assume, or rather would be given
by the public voice, the mother's name. Finally,
metronymics can be collected in hundreds by anyone
who cares to work through a few early registers.

92

FEMALE FONT-NAMES 93

Thus, in the Lancashire Inquests 1205-1307 occur
plenty of people described as the son of Alice, Beatrice,
Christiana, Eda, Eva, Mariot, Matilda, Quenilda, 1
Sibilla, Ysolt. Even if illegitimacy were the only reason,
that would not concern the philologist.

Female names undergo the same course of treatment
as male names. Mary gave the diminutives Marion
and Mariot, whence Marriott. It was popularly
shortened into Mai (cf. Hal for Harry), which had
the diminutive Mally. From these we have Mawson
and Malleson, the former also belonging to Maud.
Mai and Mally became Mol and Molly, hence Molli-
son. The rimed forms Pol, Polly are later, and names
in Pol- usually belong to Paul (p. 87). The names
Morris and Morrison occur too frequently to be alto-
gether accounted for as from the font-name Maurice
and the nickname Moorish, and are sometimes to be
referred to Mary. Similarly Margaret, popularly Mar-
get, became Mag, Meg, Mog, whence Meggitt, Moxon,
etc. The rarity of Maggot is easily understood, but
Poll Maggot was one of Jack Sheppard's accom-
plices and Shakespeare used maggot-pie for magpie
(Macbeth, iii, 4). Meg was rimed into Peg, whence
Peggs, Mog into Pog, whence Pogson, and Madge into
Padge, whence Padgett, when this is not for Patchett
(p. 89), or for the Fr. Paget, usually explained as
Littlepage. The royal name Matilda appears in the
contracted Maud, Mould, Moule, Mott, Mahood (Old
Fr. Maheut). Its middle syllable Till gave Tilly,
Tillson and the dim. Tillet, Tillot, whence Tillotson.
From Beatrice we have Bee, Beaton and Betts, and
the northern Beattie, which are not connected with
the great name Elizabeth. This is in medieval rolls
1 An Anglo-Saxon name, Cynehild, whence Quennell.

94 METRONYMICS

represented by its cognate Isabel, of which the
shortened form was Bell (p. 8), or lb, the latter
giving Ibbot, Ibbotson, and the rimed forms Tib-,
Nib-, Bib-, Lib-. Here also belong Ebbs and Epps
rather than to the Anglo-Sax. Ebba.

Many names which would now sound somewhat
ambitious were common among the medieval peasantry
and are still found in the outlying parts of England,
especially Devon and Cornwall. Among the characters
in Mr .-Eden Phillpotts's Widecombe Fair are two sisters
named Sibley and Petronell. From Sibilla, now Sybil,
come most names in Sib-, though this was used also as
a dim. of Sebastian (see also p. 75), while Petronilla has
given Parnell, Purnell. As a female name it suffered
the eclipse to which certain names are accidentally
subject, and became equivalent to wench. Reference
to a " prattling Parnel " are common in old writers,
and the same fate overtook it in French —

" Taisez-vous, pironnelle" (Tartufe, i. i).

Mention has already been made of the survival of
Guinevere (p. 79). From Cassandra we have Cash,
Cass, Case, and Casson, from Idonia, Ide, Iddins,
Iddison ; these no doubt confused with the derivatives
of Ida and also of Eda and Edith, for the slayer of
Jack Cade is indifferently called Iden and Edens.
Pirn, as a female font-name, may be from Eu-
phemia, and Siddons appears to belong to Sidonia,
while the pretty name Avis or Avice has given Haweis.
From Lettice, Lat. Icstitia, joy, we have Letts, Lettson,
while the corresponding Joyce, Lat. jocosa, merry, has
become confused with Fr. Josse (see p. 10). Anstey,
Anstis, is from Anastasia, Dobell from Dulcibella,
Precious from Preciosa, and Royce from Rohesia.

DOUBTFUL CASES 95

It is often difficult to separate patronymics from
metronymics. We have already seen (p. 60) that
names in Ed- may be from Eda or from Edward, while
names in Gil- must be shared between Julian, Juliana,
Guillaume, Gilbert, and Giles. There are many other
cases like Julian and Juliana, e.g. Custance is for
Constance, but Cust may also represent the masculine
Constant, while among the derivatives of Philip we
must not forget the warlike Philippa. Or, to take pairs
which are unrelated, Kitson may be from Christopher
or from Catherine and Mattison from Matthew or
from Martha, which became Matty and Patty, the
derivatives of the latter coalescing with those of
Patrick (p. 63). It is obvious that the derivatives of
Alice would be confused with those of Allen, while
names in El- may represent Elias or Eleanor. Also
names in Al- and El- are sometimes themselves confused,
e.g. the Anglo-Saxon ^Elfgod appears both as Allgood
and Elgood. More Nelsons are derived from Neil, i.e.
Nigel, than from Nell, the rimed dim. of Ellen. Emmett
is a dim. of Emma, but Empson may be a shortened
Emerson from Emery (p. 80). The rather common-
place Tibbies stands for both Theobald and Isabella,
and the same is true of all names in Tib- and some in
Teb-. Lastly, the coalescence of John, the commonest
English font-name, with Joan, the earlier form of Jane,
was inevitable, while the French forms Jean and Jeanne
would be undistinguishable in their derivatives. These
names between them have given an immense number
of surnames, the masculine or feminine interpretation
of which must be left to the reader's imagination.

CHAPTER XI

LOCAL SURNAMES

" Now as men have always first given names unto places, so hath
it afterwards grown usuall that men have taken their names from
places" (Verstegan, Restitution of Decayed Intelligence).

There is an idea cherished by some people that the
possession of a surname which is that of a village or
other locality points to ancestral ownership of that
region. This is a delusion. In the case of quite small
features of the landscape, e.g. Bridge, Hill, the name
was given from place of residence. But in the case of
counties, towns and villages, the name was usually
acquired when the locality was left. Thus John
Tiler leaving Acton, perhaps for Acton's good, would
be known in his new surroundings as John Acton.
A moment's reflection will show that this must be so.
Scott is an English name, the aristocratic Scotts
beyond the border representing a Norman family Escot,
originally of Scottish origin. English, early spelt
Inglis, is a Scottish name. The names Cornish and
Cornwallis first became common in Devonshire, as
Devenish did outside that county. French and Francis,
Old Fr. le franceis, are English names, just as
Langlois (lAnglais) is common in France. For the
same reason Cutler is a rare name in Sheffield, where
all are cutlers. By exception the name Curnow, which
is Cornish for a Cornishman, is fairly common in its

CLASSES OF LOCAL NAMES 97

native county, but it was perhaps applied especially
to those inhabitants who could only speak the old
Cornish language.

The local name may range in origin from a country
to a plant (France, Darbishire, Lankester, Ashby, Street,
House, Pound, Plumptre, Daisy), and, mathematically
stated, the size of the locality will vary in direct pro-
portion to the distance from which the immigrant has
come. Terentius Afer was named from a continent.
I cannot find a parallel in England, but names such
as the nouns France, Ireland, Pettingell (Portugal), or
the adjectives Dench, Mid. Eng. dense, Danish, Norman,
Welsh, (Walsh, Wallis, etc.), Allman (Allemand), often
perverted to Almond, were considered a sufficient mark
of identification for men who came from foreign parts.
But the untravelled inhabitant, if distinguished by a
local name, would often receive it from some very
minute feature of the landscape, e.g. Solomon Daisy
may have been descended from a Robert Dayeseye,
who lived in Hunts in 1273. It is not very easy
to see how such very trifling surnames as this last
came into existence, but its exiguity is surpassed
in the case of a prominent French airman who
bears the appropriately buoyant name of Brindejonc,
perhaps from some ancestor who habitually chewed
a straw.

An immense number of our countrymen are simply
named from the points of the compass, slightly dis-
guised in N orris, Anglo- Fr. le noreis, 1 Sotheran, the
southron, and Sterling, for Easterling, a name given
to the Hanse merchants. Westray was formerly le
westreis. A German was to our ancestors, as he still
is to sailors, a Dutchman, whence our name Douch,
1 The corresponding le surreis is now probably obsolete.

9 8 LOCAL SURNAMES

Ger. deutsch, Old High Ger. tiutisc, which, through
Old French tieis, has given Tyas. 1

But not every local name is to be taken at its face
value. Holland is usually from Holland in Lancashire
and England is for Mid. Eng. ing-land, the land of Ing
(cf. Ingulf, Ingold, etc.), a personal name which is the
first element in many place-names, or from ing, a
meadow by a stream. Holyland is not Palestine, but
the holly-land. Hampshire is often for Hallamshire,
a district in Yorkshire. Dane is a variant of Mid. Eng.
dene, a valley, the inhabitant of Denmark having given
us Bench (p. 97) and Dennis (le daneis). Visitors to
Margate will remember the valley called the Dane,
which stretches from the harbour to St. Peter's.
Saxon is not racial, but a perversion of sexton (p. 167).
Mr. Birdofredum Sawin, commenting on the methods
employed in carrying out the great mission of the
Anglo-Saxon race, remarks that —

" Saxons would be handy
To du the buryin' down here upon the Rio Grandy "

(Lowell, Biglow Papers).

The name Cockayne was perhaps first given derisively
to a sybarite —

" Paris est pour le riche un pays de Cocagne " (Boileau, Let. 6),

but it may be an imitative form of Coken in Durham.

Names such as Morris, i.e. Moorish, but also from
the personal name Maurice, or Sarson, i.e. Saracen,
but also for Sara-son, are rather nicknames, due to
complexion or to an ancestor who was mine host of the
Saracen's Head. Moor is sometimes of similar origin.

1 Tyars, or Tyers, which Bardsley puts with this, is Fr. Thiers.
Lat. tertius.

COUNTIES AND TOWNS 99

Russ, like Rush, is one of the many forms of Fr. roux,
red-complexioned (p. 21). Pole is for Pool, the native
of Poland being called Pollock —

" He smote the sledded Polack on the ice " {Hamlet, I. i).

As a rule it will be found that while most of our
counties have given family names, sometimes cor-
rupted, e.g. Lankshear, Willsher, Cant, Chant, for Kent,
with which we may compare Anguish for Angus,
the larger towns are rather poorly represented, the
movement having always been from country to town,
and the smaller spot serving for more exact description.
An exception is Bristow (Bristol), Mid. Eng. brig-stow,
the place on the bridge, the great commercial city of
the west from which so many medieval seamen hailed ;
but the name is sometimes from Burstow (Surrey), and
there were possibly smaller places called by so natural
a name, just as the name Bradford, i.e. broad ford,
may come from a great many other places than the
Yorkshire wool town. Rossiter is generally for Ro-
chester, but also for Wroxeter (Salop) ; Coggeshall
is well disguised as Coxall, Barnstaple as Bastable,
Maidstone as Mayston, Stockport as Stop ford. On the
other hand, there is not a village of any antiquity but
has, or once had, a representative among surnames.

The provinces and towns of France and Flanders
have given us many common surnames. From names
of provinces we have Burgoyne and Burgin, Champain
and Champneys (p. 20), Gascoyne and Gaskin, Mayne,
Mansell, Old Fr. Mancel (manceau), an inhabitant of
Maine or of its capital Le Mans, Brett and Britton,
Fr. le Bret and le Breton, Pickard and Power, some-
times from Old Fr. Pokier, a Picard, Peto, formerly
Peitow, from Poitou, Poidevin and Puddifin, for

ioo LOCAL SURNAMES

Poitevin, Loving, Old Fr. le Lohereng, the man from
Lorraine, assimilated to Fleming, Hanway, an old
name for Hainault, Brabazon, le Brabancon, and
Brebner, formerly le Brabaner, Angwin, for Angevin,
Flinders, a perversion of Flanders, Barry, which is
often for Berri, and others which can be identified
by everybody.

Among towns we have Allenson and Dallison,
Alencon, Amyas, Amiens (cf. Father Damien), Ainger,
Angers, Aris, Arras, Bevis, Beauvais, Bullen, Boulogne,
Bloss, Blois, Callis and Challis, Calais, Challen, Chalon,
Chaworth, Cahors, Druce, Dreux, Gaunt, Gand (Ghent),
Luck, Luick (Liege), Loving, Louvain, Luckner, Du.
Luykenaar, man from Liege, M alius, Malines (Mechlin),
Raynes, Rennes and Rheims, Roan, Rouen, Sessions,
Soissons, Stamp, Old Fr. Estampes (Etampes), Turney,
Tournay, etc. The name de Verdun is common enough
in old records for us to connect with it both the fas-
cinating Dolly and the illustrious Harry. To the
above may be added, among German towns, Cullen,
Cologne, and Lubbock, Lubeck, and, from Italy,
Janes, Genes (Genoa), Janaway or Janways, i.e.
Genoese, and Lambard or Lombard. Familiar names
of foreign towns were often anglicized. Thus we find
Hamburg called Hamborough, Bruges Bridges, and
Tours Towers.

To the town of Angers we owe, besides Ainger,
the forbidding names Anger and Danger. In many
local names of foreign origin the preposition de has
been incorporated, e.g. Dalmain, d'Allemagne, some-
times corrupted into Dallman and D oilman, though
these are also for Doleman, from the East Anglian
dole, a boundary, Danvers, d'Anvers, Antwerp, Dever-
eux, d'Evreux, Daubeney, Dabney, d'Aubigny, Disney,

NAMES PRECEDED BY DE 101

d'Isigny, etc. Doyle is a later form of Doyley, or
Dolley, from d'Ouilli, and Darcy and Durfey were once
d'Arcy and d'Urfe. Dew is sometimes for de Eu.
Sir John de Grey, justice of Chester, had in 1246 two
Alice in Wonderland clerks named Henry de Eu and
William de Ho. This retention of the de is also
common in names derived from spots which have not
become recognized place-names ; see p. 140. A familiar
example, which has been much disputed, is the Cam-
bridgeshire name Death, which some of its possessors
prefer to write D'Aeth or De Ath. Bardsley rejects
this, without, I think, sufficient reason. It is true that
it occurs as de Dethe in the Hundred Rolls, but this
is not a serious argument, for we find also de Daubeney
(see p. 100), the original de having already been
absorbed at the time the Rolls were compiled.

But to derive a name of obviously native origin from
a place in France is a snobbish, if harmless, delusion.
There are quite enough moor leys in England without
explaining Morley by Morlaix. To connect the Mid.
English nickname Longfellow with Longueville or
the patronymic Hansom (p. 36) with Anceaumville
betrays the same belief in phonetic epilepsy that
inspires the derivation of Barber from the chapelry
of Sainte-Barbe. The fact that there are at least
three places in England called Carrington has not
prevented one writer from seeking the origin of that
name in the appropriate locality of Charenton.

CHAPTER XII

SPOT NAMES

" In ford, in ham, in ley and tun
The most of English surnames run "

(Verstegan).

Verstegan's couplet, even if it be not strictly true,
makes a very good text for a discourse on our local
names. The ham, or home, and the ton, or town,
originally an enclosure (cf. Ger. Zaun, hedge), were,
at any rate in a great part of England, the regular
nucleus of the village, which in some cases has become
the great town and in others has decayed away and
disappeared from the map. In an age when wool
was our great export, flock keeping was naturally a
most important calling, and the ley, or meadow land,
would be quickly taken up and associated with human
activity. When bridges were scarce, fords were im-
portant, and it is easy to see how the inn, the smithy,
the cartwright's booth, etc., would naturally plant
themselves at such a spot and form the commence-
ment of a hamlet

Each of these four words exists by itself as a specific
place-name and also as a surname. In fact Lee and
Ford are among our commonest local surnames. In
the same way the local origin of such names as Clay
and Chalk may be specific as well as general. But I

ELEMENTS OF PLACE-NAMES 103

do not propose to deal here with the vast subject of
our English village names, but only with the essential
elements of which they are composed, elements which
were often used for surnominal purposes long before
the spot itself had developed into a village. 1 Thus
the name Oakley must generally have been borne by a
man who lived on meadow land which was surrounded
or dotted with oak-trees. But I should be shy of
explaining a given village called Oakley in the same
way, because the student of place-names might be
able to show from early records that the place was
originally an ey, or island, and that the first syllable
is the disguised name of a medieval churl. These four
simple etymons themselves may also become perverted.
Thus -ham is sometimes confused with holm (p. 117),
-ley, as I have just suggested, may in some cases
contain -ey, -ton occasionally interchanges with -don
and -stone, and -ford with the French -fort (see p. 139).
In this chapter will be found a summary of the
various words applied by our ancestors to the natural
features of the land they lived on. To avoid too
lengthy a catalogue, I have classified them under the
three headings (1) Hill and Dale, (2) Plain and Wood-

1 A good general account of our village names will be found in
the Appendix to Isaac Taylor's Names and their Histories. It is
reprinted as chapter xi of the same author's Words and Places
(Everyman Library), in which new setting it shines, philologically,
like a good deed in a naughty world. There are a few excellent
monographs on the village names of various counties, e.g. Bedford-
shire, Berkshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Huntingdonshire
(Skeat), Oxfordshire (Alexander), Lancashire (Wyld and Hirst),
West Riding of Yorkshire (Moorman), Staffordshire, Warwickshire,
Worcestershire (Duignan), to which, by the time these lines are
printed, may be added Nottinghamshire by my colleague Dr. H.
Mutschmann. But the greater part of what has been done on this
subject by earlier writers is, says Dr. Bradley, worthless.

104 SPOT NAMES

land, (3) Water and Waterside, reserving for the next
chapter the names due to man's interference with the
scenery, e.g. roads, buildings, enclosures, etc. They
are mostly Anglo-Saxon or Scandinavian, the Celtic
name remaining as the appellation of the individual
hill, stream, etc. (Helvellyn, Avon, etc.). The simple
word has in almost all cases given a fairly common
surname, but compounds are of course numerous, the
first element being descriptive of the second, e.g.
Bradley, broad lea, Radley and Ridley, red lea, Brockley,
brook lea or badger lea (p. 225), Beverley, beaver lea,
Cleverley, clover lea, Hawley, hedge lea, Rawnsley,
raven's lea, and so ad infinitum. In the oldest records
spot names are generally preceded by the preposition
at, whence such names as Attewell, Atwood, but other
prepositions occur, as in Bythesea, Underwood and the
hybrid Surtees, on Tees. Cf. such French names as
Doutrepont, from beyond the bridge.

One curious phenomenon, of which I can offer no
explanation, is that while many spot names occur
indifferently with or without -s, e.g. Bridge, Bridges ;
Brook, Brooks ; Piatt, Platts, in others we find a
regular preference either for the singular or plural 1
form. Compare the following couples :

Field Meadows

Lake Rivers

Pool Mears (meres)

Spring Wells

Street Rhodes * (roads)

Marsh Myers i (mires)

1 In some cases no doubt a plural, in others a kind of genitive
due to the influence of personal names, such as Wills, Perkins, etc.

2 These are often also Jewish names, from the island of Rhodes
and from Ger. Meyer.

HILL AND DALE 105

to which many more might be added. So we find
regularly Nokes but Nash (p. 34), Beech but Willows.
The general tendency is certainly towards the -s forms
in the case of monosyllables, e.g. Banks, Foulds, Hayes,
Stubbs, Thwaites, etc., but we naturally find the singular
in compounds, e.g. Windebank (winding), Nettlefold,
Roundhay, etc.

There is also a further problem offered by names
in -er. We know that a Waller was a mason or wall-
builder, but was a Bridger really a Pontifex, 1 did he
merely live near the bridge, or was he the same as a
Bridgman, and what was the latter ? Did Sam Weller's
ancestor sink wells, possess a well, or live near some-
one else's well ? Probably all explanations may be .
correct, for the suffix may have differed in meaning
according to locality, but I fancy that in most cases
proximity alone is implied. The same applies to many
cases of names in -man, such as Hillman, Dickman
(dyke), Parkman.

Many of the words in the following paragraphs are
obsolete or survive only in local usage. Some of them
also vary considerably in meaning, according to the
region in which they are found. I have included many
which, in their simple form, seem too obvious to need
explanation, because the compounds are not always
equally clear.

Hill and Dale

We have a fair number of Celtic words connected
with natural scenery, but they do not as a rule form

1 An example of a Latinized name. Cf. Sutor, Faber, and the
barbarous Sartorius, for sartor, a tailor. Pontifex may also be the
latinized form of Pope or Bishop. It is not known why this title,
bridge-builder, was given to high-priests.

106 SPOT NAMES

compounds, and as surnames are usually found in
their simple form. Such are Cairn, a stony hill, Crag,
Craig, and the related Carrick and Creagh, Glen or
Glynn, and Lynn, a cascade. Two words, however,
of Celtic origin, don, or down, a hill, and combe, a
hollow in the hills, were adopted by the Anglo-Saxons
and enter into many compounds. Thus we find
Kingdon, whence the imitative Kingdom, Brandon,
from the name Brand (p. 74), Ashdown, etc. The
simple Donne or Dunne is sometimes the Anglo-Saxon
name Dunna, whence Dunning, or a colour nickname,
while Down and Downing may represent the Anglo-
Sax. Duna and Duning (see p. 76). From combe, used
especially in the west of England, we have Compton,
and such compounds as Acomb, at combe, Addiscombe
(Adam), Battiscombe (Bartholomew), etc. But Newcomb
is for Newcome (p. 22). See also Slocomb (p. 207).

The simple Hill and Dale are among our common
surnames. Hill also appears as Hull and is easily
disguised in compounds, e.g. Brummel for broom-hill,
Tootell and Tuttle for Toothill, a name found in
many localities and meaning a hill on which a watch
was kept. It is connected with the verb to tout,
originally to look out. We have Dale and its cognate
Dell in Swindell (swine), Tindall (Tyne), Twaddell,
Tweddell (Tweed), etc. —

" Mr. H. T. Twaddle announced the change of his name to Tweed-
dale in the Times, January 4, 1890 " (Bardsley).

Other names for a hill are Fell (Scand.), found in the
lake country, whence Grenfell ; and Hough or How
(Scand.), as in Greenhow, Birchenough, and Goode-
nough 1 (Godwin). This is often reduced to -0, as in

1 Probably not a nickname. Its apparent opposite, Badenough,
is for Badenoch in Scotland.

HILLS 107

Clitheroe, Shafto, and is easily confused with scough,
a wood (Scand.), as in Briscoe (birch), Ay scough (ash).
In the north we also find Law and Low, with such
compounds as Bradlaugh, Whitelaw, and Harlow. To
these must be added Barrow, often confused with the
related borough (p. 121). Both belong to the Anglo-
Sax, beorgan, to protect, cover. The name Leather-
barrow means the hill, perhaps the burial mound, of
Leather, Anglo-Sax. Hlothere, cognate with Lothair
and Luther.

A hill-top was Cope or Copp. • Chaucer uses it of the
tip of the Miller's nose —

"Upon the cope right of his nose he hade
A werte, and thereon stood a toft of herys."

(A. S54-)

Another name for a hill-top appears in Peak, Pike,
Peck, or Pick, but the many compounds in Pick-, e.g.
Pickbourne, Pickford, Pickwick, etc., suggest a per-
sonal name Pick of which we have the dim. in Pickett
(cf. Fr. Picot) and the softened Piggot. We find Peak
also as Peach and Petch, Anglo-French forms applied
specifically to the Derbyshire Peak. A mere hillock or
knoll has given the names Knapp, Knollys or Knowles,
Knock, and Knott. But Knapp may also be for Mid.
Eng. cnape, cognate with knave and with Low Ger.
Knappe, squire —

"Wer wagt es, Rittersmann Oder Knapp',
Zu tauchen in diesen Schlund ? "

(Schiller, Der Taucher, 1. I.)

Redknap. the name of a Richmond boat-builder, is
probably a nickname, like Redhead. A Knapper may
have lived on a " knap," or may have been one of the
Suffolk flint-knappers, who still prepare gun-flints for

108 SPOT NAMES

weapons to be retailed to the heathen. Knock and
Knocker are both Kentish names, and there is a reef
off Margate known as the Kentish Knock. We have
the plural Knox (cf. Bax, p. 125). Knott is sometimes
for Cnut, or Canute, which generally becomes Nutt.
Both have got mixed with the nickname Nott.

A green knoll was also called Toft (Scand.), whence
Langtoft, and the name was used later for a homestead.
From Cliff we have Clift, 1 with excrescent -t, and the
cognates Cleeve and Clive. Compounds of Cliff are
Radcliffe (red), Sutcliffe (south), Wyclif (white). The
c- sometimes disappears in compounds, e.g. Cunliffe,
earlier Cunde-clive, and Topliff ; but Ayliffe is for
iElfgifu or .ZEthelgifu and Goodliffe from Godleof (cf.
Ger. Gottlieb). The older form of Stone appears in
Staines, Stanhope, Stanton, etc. Wheatstone is either
for white stone or for the local Whetstone (Middlesex) .
In Balderstone, Johnston, Edmondstone, Livingstone,
the suffix is -ton, though the frequence of Johnston
points to corruption from Johnson, just as in Not-
tingham we have the converse case of Beeson from
the local Beeston. In Hailstone the first element is
Mid. Eng. hali, holy. Another Mid. English name
for a stone appears in Hone, now used only of a
whetstone.

A hollow or valley in the hillside was called in the
north Clough, also spelt Clow, Cleugh (Clim o' the
Cleugh), and Clew. The compound Fair clough is
found corrupted into Faircloth. Another northern
name for a glen was Hope, whence Allsop, Blenkinsop,
Trollope, the first element in each being probably the
name of the first settler, and Burnup, Hartopp (hart),
Harrap (hare), Heslop (hazel). Gill (Scand.), a ravine,

1 This may also be from Mid. Eng. clift, a cleft.

WOODLAND AND PLAIN 109

has given Fothergill, Pickersgill, and Gaskell, from
Gaisgill (Westmorland). These, like most of our
names connected with mountain scenery, are natur-
ally found almost exclusively in the north. Other
surnames which belong more or less to the hill
country are Hole, found also as Roll, Hoole, and
Hoyle, but perhaps meaning merely a depression in
the land, Ridge, and its northern form Rigg, with
their compounds Doddridge, Langridge, Brownrigg,
Hazelrigg, etc. But Penkridge, Pankridge are dis-
tortions of Pancras or Pancratius. From Mid. Eng.
raike, a path, a sheep-track (Scand.), we get Raikes
and Greatorex, found earlier as Greatrakes, the name of
a famous faith-healer of the seventeenth century.

Woodland and Plain

The compounds of Wood itself are very numerous, e.g.
Braidwood, Harwood, Norwood, Sherrard and Sherratt
(Sherwood) . But, in considering the frequency of the
simple Wood, it must be remembered that we find
people described as le wode, i.e. mad (cf. Ger. Wut,
frenzy), and that mad and madman are found as
medieval names —

"Thou told'st me they were stolen unto this wood ;
And here am I, and wode within this wood.
Because I cannot meet my Hermia."

(Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. i.)

As a suffix -wood is sometimes a corruption of -ward,
e.g. Haywood is occasionally for Hayward, and
Allwood, Elwood are for Aylward, Anglo-Sax. .ZEthel-
weard. Another name for a wood was Holt, cognate
with Ger. Holz —

no SPOT NAMES

" But right so as thise holtes and thise hay is,
That han in winter dede ben and dreye,
Revesten hem in grene whan that May is."

(Troilus and Criseyde, iii. 351.)

Hurst or Hirst means a wooded hill (cf. Ger. Horst),
and Shaw was once almost as common a word as
wood itself —

" Wher rydestow under this grene-wode shawe ? "

(D, 1386.)

Hurst belongs especially to the south and west, though
Hirst is very common in Yorkshire ; Shaw is found in
the north and Holt in the east and south. We have
compounds of Shaw in Bradshaw, Crashaw (crbw),
Hearnshaw or Eamshaw (heron), Renshaw 1 (raven), etc.,
of Hurst in Buckhurst (beech), Brockhurst (badger),
and of Holt in Oakshott.

We have earlier forms of Grove in Greaves —

' ' And with his stremes dryeth in the greats
The silver dropes, hangynge on the leves" (A. 1495) —

and Graves, the latter being thus no more funereal than
Tombs, from Thomas (cf . Timbs from Timothy) . But
Greaves and Graves may also be variants of the official
Grieves (p. 181), or may come from Mid. Eng. grcefe,
a trench, quarry. Compounds are Hargreave (hare),
Redgrave, Stangrave, the two latter probably referring
to an excavation. From Mid. Eng. strode, a small
wood, appear to come Strode and Stroud, compound
Bulstrode, while Struthers is the cognate strother, marsh,
still in dialect use. Weald and wold, the cognates of
Ger. Wold, were applied rather to wild country in
general than to land covered with trees. They are

1 It is obvious that this may also be for raven's haw (p. 124).
Raven was a common personal name and is the first element in
Ramsbottom (p. 114), Ramsden.

FOREST CLEARINGS in

probably connected with wild. Similarly the Late
Lat. foresta, whence our forest, means only what is
outside, Lat. foris, the town jurisdiction. From the
Mid. Eng. wcsld we have the names Weld and Weale,
the latter with the not uncommon loss of final -d.
Scroggs (Scand.) and Scrubbs suggest their meaning
of brushwood. Scroggins, from its form, is a patro-
nymic, and probably represents Scoggins with intru-
sive -r- (p. 88, n. i). This is from Scogin, a name borne
by a poet who was contemporary with Chaucer and
by a court-fool of the fifteenth century —

" The same Sir John, the very same. I saw him break Skogan's
head at the court gate, when he was a crack, not thus high.' -

(2 Henry IV., iii. 2.)

With Scrubb of cloudy ammonia fame we may
compare Wormwood Scrubbs. Shrubb is the same
word, and Shropshire is for Anglo-Sax. scrob-scire.

The two northern names for a clearing in the wood
were Royd and Thwaite (Scand.). The former is
cognate with the second part of Baireut and Wernige-
rode, and with the Rutli, the small plateau on which
the Swiss patriots took their famous oath. It was so
called —

" Weil dort die Waldung ausgerodet ward."

(Schiller, Wilhelm Tell.)

Among its compounds are Ackroyd (oak), Grindrod
(green), Murgatroyd (Margaret), Learoyd (lea), Ormerod,
etc. We also find the name Rodd, which may belong
here or to Rudd (p. 74), and both these names may also
be for Rood, equivalent to Cross or Crouch (p. 17), as
inHolyrood. Ridding is also related to Royd. Hacking
may be a dim. of Hack (Haco), but we find also de le
hacking, which suggests a forest clearing. Thwaite,

H2 SPOT NAMES

from Anglo-Sax. pwitan, to cut, is found chiefly in
Cumberland and the adjacent region in such com-
pounds as Braithwaitc (broad), Hebbelthwaite, Postle-
thwaite, Satterthwaite. The second of these is some-
times corrupted into Ablewhite as Cowperthwaite is
into Copperwheat, for " this suffix has ever been
too big a mouthful in the south " (Bardsley). A
glade or valley in the wood was called a Dean,
Dene, Denne, cognate with den. The compounds are
numerous, e.g. Borden (boar), Dibden (deep), Sowden,
Sugden (sow), Hazeldean or Heseltine, etc. From the
fact that swine were pastured in these glades the names
Denman and Denyer have been explained as equivalent
to swineherd. As a suffix -den is often confused with
-don (p. 106). At the foot of Horsenden Hill, near
Harrow, two boards announce Horseniow Farm and
Horseniew Golf-links. An opening in the wood was
also called Slade —

"And when he came to Barnesdale,
Great heavinesse there hee hadd ;
He found two of his fellowes
Were slaine both in a slade."

(Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.)

The maps still show Pond Slade in Richmond Park.
The compound Hertslet may be for hart-slade.

Acre, a field, cognate with, but not derived from,Lat.
ager, occurs in Goodacre, Hardacre, Linacre, Whittaker,
etc., and Field itself gives numerous compounds, in-
cluding Butterfield (bittern, p. 220), Schofield (school),
Streatfeild (street), Whitfield. Pasture- land is repre-
sented above all by Lea, for which see p. 28. It is
cognate with Hohenlohe and Waterloo, while Mead
and Medd are cognate with Zermatt (at the mead).
Brinsmead thus means the same as Brinsley.

MARSHES 113

Marshy land has given the names Can or Kerr (Scand.)
and Marsh, originally an adjective, merisc, from mer,
mere. Marris represents the cognate Fr. marais. The
compounds Tidmarsh and Titchmarsh contain the
Anglo-Saxon names Tidda and Ticca. Moor also
originally had the meaning morass (e.g. in Sedgemoor),
as Ger. Moor still has, so that Fenimore is pleonastic.
The northern form is Muir, as in Muirhead. Moss
was similarly used in the north ; cf . moss-trooper and
Solway Moss, but the surname Moss is generally for
Moses (p. 85). From slough we get the names Slow,
Slowley, and Sloman (also a perversion of Solomon),
with which we may compare Moorman and Mossman.
This seems to be also the most usual meaning of
Slack or Slagg, also used of a gap in the hills —

" The first horse that he rode upon,
For he was raven black,
He bore him far, and very far,
But failed in a slack."

(Ballad of Lady Maisry.)

Tye, or Tighe, means common land. Piatt is a
piece, or plot, of level country —

"Oft on a plat of rising ground
I hear the far-off curfew sound"

(Penseroso, 1. 73) ;

and shape is expressed by Gore, a triangular piece of
land (cf. Kensington Gore), of which the older form
Gare, Geare, also survives. In Lowndes we have laund
or lound —

"And to the laund he rideth hym ful right,
For thider was the hart wont have his flight"

(A. 1691)—

a piece of heath land, the origin of the modern word
lawn. In Lund and Lunn it has become confused
9

114 SPOT NAMES

with the Old Norse lundr, a sacred grove. Laund itself
is of French origin —

" Lande, a land, or laund: a wild, unfilled, shrubbie, or bushie
plaine " (Cotgrave).

Its relation to land is uncertain, and it is not always
possible to distinguish them in such compounds as
Acland, Buckland, Cleveland, etc. The name Lander
or Launder is unconnected with these (see p. 186).
Flack is Mid. Eng. flagge, turf. Snape is a dialect
word for winter pasture, and Wong means a meadow.
A rather uncouth-looking set of names, which occur
chiefly on the border of Cheshire and Lancashire,
are compounded from bottom or botham, a wide
shallow valley suited for agriculture. Hotspur, dis-
satisfied with his fellow-conspirators' map-drawing,
expresses his intention of damming the Trent so
that—

" It shall not wind with such a deep indent
To rob me of so rich a bottom here."

(i Henry IV. iii. I.)

The first element is sometimes the name of the settler,
e.g. Higginbottom (Richard), Rowbotham (Roland).
The first element of Shufflebotham is, in the Lancashire
Assize Rolls (1176-1285), spelt Schyppewalle- and
Schyppewelle-, where schyppe is for sheep, still so
pronounced in dialect.

Water and Waterside

Very few surnames are taken, in any language, from
the names of rivers. This is quite natural, for just as
the man who lived on a hill became known as Hill,
Peake, etc., and not as Skiddaw or Wrekin, so the

RIVERS 115

man who lived by" the waterside would be known as
Bywater, Rivers, etc. No Londoner talks of going on
the Thames. Another reason for the^ absence of such
surnames is probably to be found in the fact that our
river (and mountain) names are almost exclusively
Celtic, and had no connotation for the English popu-
lation. We have many apparent river names, but most
of them are susceptible of another explanation. Dee
may be for Day as Deakin is for Daykin, Derwent
looks like Darwin (p. 73) or the local Darwen with
excrescent -t (p. 41), Humber is Humbert, a French name
corresponding to the Anglo-Sax. Hunbeorht, Medway
is merely " mid- way," which is also the origin of the
river name, and Trent is a place in Somerset. Severn
I guess to be a perversion of Mid. Eng. le severe,
which may mean what it appears to, though it is
more probably the name of a sieve-maker, whence
the name Seaver. This view as to river surnames is
supported by the fact that we do not appear to have
a single mountain surname, the apparent exception,
Snowdon, being for Snowden (see den, p. 112).

Among names for streams we have Beck, 1 cognate
with Ger. Bach, Bourne,' or Burn, cognate with Ger.
Brunnen, Brook, related to break, Crick, a creek, Fleet,
a creek, cognate with Flood, and Syke, a trench or
rill. In Beckett and Brockett the suffix is head (p. 126).
Troutbeck, Birkbeck explain themselves. In Colbeck
we have cold, Glazebrook is for glassy brook, Holbrook
contains hollow, and Addenbrook means " at the
brook" (p. 104). We find Brook latinized as Ton ens.
Aborn is for atte bourne, and there are probably many

1 The simple Beck is generally a German name of modern intro-
duction (p. 149).

2 Distinct from bourne, a boundary, Fr. borne.

n6 SPOT NAMES

places called Blackburn and Otterburn. Firth, an
estuary, cognate with fjord, often becomes Frith, but
this surname usually comes from frith, a park or
game preserve \p. 124).

Another word for a creek, wich or wick (Scand.),
cannot be distinguished from wick, a settlement.
Pond, a doublet of Pound (p. 135), means a piece
of water enclosed by a dam, while natural sheets
of water are Lake, or Lack, not limited originally
to a large expanse, Mere, whence Mears and the
compound Cranmer (crane) , and Pool, also Pull and
Pole. We have compounds of the latter in Poulton
(p. 4), Pooley (ey, p. 117), Claypole, and Glasspool.
In Kent a small pond is called Sole, whence Nether-
sole. The bank of a river or lake was called Over,
cognate with Ger. Ufer, whence Overend, Overall
(hall), Overbury, Overland. The surname Shore, for
atte shore, may refer to the sea-shore, but the word
sewer was once regularly so pronounced and the
name was applied to large drains in the fen country
(cf. Gott, p. 129). Beach is a word of late appear-
ance and doubtful origin, and as a surname is usually
identical with Beech.

Spits of land by the waterside were called Hook
(cf. Hook of Holland and Sandy Hook) and Hoe or
Hoo, as in Plymouth Hoe, or the Hundred of Hoo,
between the Thames and the Medway. From Hook
comes Hooker, where it does not mean a maker of hooks,
while Homan and Hooman sometimes belong to the
second. Alluvial land by a stream was called halgh,
haugh, whence sometimes Hawes. Its dative case
gives Hale and Heal. These often become -hall in
place-names. Compounds are Greenhalgh, Greenall,
and Feather stonehaugh, perhaps our longest surname.

ISLANDS 117

Ing, a low-lying meadow, Mid. Eng. eng, survives
in Greening (also a patronymic, p. 71), and probably
in England (p. 98). But Inge and Ings, the latter
the name of one of the Cato Street conspirators, also
represent an Anglo-Saxon personal name. Cf. Ingall
and Ingle, from Ingold, or Ingwulf ; cf. Ingoldsby.

Ey, 1 an island, survives as the last element of many
names, and is not always to be distinguished from hey
(hay, p. 124) and ley. Bill Nye's ancestor lived atten ey
(p. 34). Dowdney or Dudeney, from the Anglo-Saxon
name Duda, has probably swallowed up the very com-
mon French name Dieudonne, corresponding to Lat.
Deodatus. In the north a river island was commonly
called Holm (Scand.), also pronounced Home, Hulme,
and Hume, in compounds easily confused with -ham,
e.g. Durham was once Dun-holmr, hill island.
Hence sometimes Holman, Holmer, and Homer. The
very common Holmes is probably in most cases
a tree-name (p. 118). In Chisholm the first element
means pebble ; cf. Chesil Beach. The names Bent,
whence Broadbent, and Crook probably also belong
sometimes to the river, but may have arisen from a
turn in a road or valley. But Bent was also applied
to a hill covered with bents, or rushes, and Crook
is generally a nickname (p. 211). Lastly, the crossing
of the unbridged stream has given us Ford or Forth,
whence Stratford or Strafford (street), Stanford or
Stamford (stone), etc. The alternative name was
Wade, from which we have the compound Grimwade.
The cognate wath (Scand.) has been swallowed up by
with (Scand.), a wood, whence the name Wythe.
Askwith, or Asquith, may thus be equivalent to Ashford
or Ashwood. Beckwith probably means Beckford.
1 Isle of Sheppey, Mersea Island, etc., are pleonasms.

n8 SPOT NAMES

Tree Names

In conclusion a few words must be said about tree
names, so common in their simple form and in topo-
graphical compounds. Here, as in the case of most
of the etymons already mentioned in this chapter,
the origin of the surname may be specific as well as
general, i.e. the name Ash may come from Ash in
Kent rather than from any particular tree, the etymo-
logy remaining the same. Many of our surnames have
preserved the older forms of tree names, e.g. the lime
was once the line, hence Lines, Lynes, and earlier still
the Lind, as in the compounds Lyndhurst, Lindley, etc.
The older form of Oak appears in Acland, Acton, and
variants in Ogden and Braddock, broad oak. We
have ash in Aston, Ascham. The holly was once the
hollin, whence Rollins, Hollis, Rollings ; cf. Rollings-
head, Holinshed. But hollin became colloquially holm,
whence generally Holmes. Homewood is for holm-
wood. The holm oak, ilex, is so called from its
holly-like leaves. For Birch we also find Birk, com-
mon in compounds. Beech often appears as Buck;
cf. buck-wheat, so called because the grains are of
the shape of beech-mast. In Poppleton, Popplewell
we have the dialect popple, a poplar. Yeo ' sometimes
represents yew, spelt yowe by Palsgrave.

In Sallows we have a provincial name for the willow,
cognate with Fr. saule and Lat. salix. Rowntree is the
rowan, or mountain ash, and Bawtry or Bawtree is a
northern name for the elder. The older forms of Alder
and Elder, in both of which the -d- is intrusive (p. 34),

1 The yeo of yeoman, which is conjectured to have meant district,
cognate with Ger. Gau in Breisgau, Rheingau, etc., is not found by
itself.

TREES 119

appear in Allerton and Ellershaw. The Hazel is found
also as the Halse, whence Halsey, the suffix being either
-ey (p. 116) or -hey, -hay (p. 124). Maple is sometimes
Mapple and sycamore is corrupted into Sicklemore.

Tree-names are common in all languages. Beerbohm
Tree is pleonastic, from Ger. Bierbaum, for Bimbaum,
pear-tree. A few years ago a prominent Belgian
statesman bore the name Vandepoerenboom, rather
terrifying till decomposed into "van den poerenboom."
Its Mid. English equivalent appears in Pirie, origin-
ally a collection of pear-trees, but used by Chaucer
for the single tree —

" And thus I lete hym sitte upon the pyrie."

(E. 2217.)

From trees we may descend gradually, via Thome,
Bush, Furze, Gorst (p. 10), Ling, etc., until we come
finally to Grace, which in some cases represents grass,
for we find William atte grase in 1327, while the name
Poorgrass, in Mr. Hardy's Far from the Madding Crowd,
seems to be certified by the famous French names
Malherbe and Malesherbes. But Savory is the French
personal name Savary.

The following list of trees is given by Chaucer in the
Knight's tale —

" The names that the trees highte, —
As 00k, firre, birch, aspe, alder, holm, popeler,
Wylugh, elm, plane, assh, box, chasteyn, lynde, laurer,
Mapul, thorn, bech, hasel, ew, whippeltre."

(A. 2920.)

They are all represented in modern directories.

CHAPTER XIII

THE HAUNTS OF MAN

" One fels downe firs, another of the same
With crossed poles a little lodge doth frame :
Another mounds it with dry wall about,
And leaves a breach for passage in and out :
With turfe and furze some others yet more grose
Their homely sties in stead of walls inclose :
Some, like the swallow, mud and hay doe mixe
And that about their silly cotes they fixe :

Some heale (thatch) their roofes with iearn, or reeds, or rushes,
And some with hides, with oase, with boughs, and bushes."

(Sylvester, The Devine Weehes.)

In almost every case where man has interfered with
nature the resulting local name is naturally of Anglo-
Saxon or, in some parts of England, of Scandinavian
origin. The Roman and French elements in our topo-
graphical names are scanty in number, though the
former are of frequent occurrence. The chief Latin
contributions are -Chester, -tester, -caster, Lat. castrum,
a fort, or plural castra, a camp ; -street, Lat. via strata,
a levelled way ; -minster, Lat. monasterium; and -church
or -kirk, Greco-Lat. kuriakon, belonging to the Lord.
Eccles, Greco-Lat. ecclesia, probably goes back to Celtic
Christianity. Street was the high-road, hence Greenstreet.
Minster is curiously corrupted in Buckmaster for Buck-
minster and Kittermaster for Kidderminster, while in its
simple form it appears as Minister (p. 35). We have a
few French place-names, e.g. Beamish (p. 139), Beau-

SETTLEMENTS 121

mont, Richmond, Richemont, and Malpas (Cheshire),
the evil pass, with which we may compare Maltravers.
We have the apparent opposite in Bompas, Bumpus,
Fr. bon pas, but this was a nickname. Of late there
has been a tendency to introduce the French ville,
e.g. Bournville, near Birmingham. That part of Mar-
gate which ought to be called Northdown is known as
Cliftonville, and the inhabitants of the opposite end
of the town, dissatisfied with such good names as
Westbrook and Rancorn, hanker after Westonville.
But these philological atrocities are fortunately too
late to be perpetuated as surnames.

I have divided the names in this chapter into those
that are connected with (1) Settlements and Enclosures,
(2) Highways and Byways, (3) Watercourses, (4)
Buildings, (5) Shop Signs. And here, as before, names
which neither in their simple nor compound form
present any difficulty are omitted.

Settlements and Enclosures

The words which occur most commonly in the
names of the modern towns which have sprung
from early settlements are borough or bury, 1 by,
ham, stoke, stow, thorp, tun or ton, wick, and worth.
These names are all of native origin, except by,
which indicates a Danish settlement, and wick, which
is supposed to be a very early loan from Lat.
vicus, cognate with Greek o'Uos, house. Nearly all
of them are common, in their simple form, both as
specific place-names and as surnames. Borough, cog-
nate with Ger. Burg, castle, and related to Barrow
(p. 107), has many variants, Bury, Brough, Borrow,
Berry, whence Berryman, and Burgh, the last of which
1 Originally the dative of borough.

122 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

has become Burke in Ireland, In Atterbury the pre-
position and article have both remained, while in
Thornber the suffix is almost unrecognizable. By,
related to byre and to the preposition by, is especially
common in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. It is some-
times spelt bee, e.g. Ashbee for Ashby. The simple
Bye is not uncommon. Ham is cognate with home.
In compounds it is sometimes reduced to -um, e.g.
Barnum, Holtum, Wamum. Allum represents the
usual Midland pronunciation of Hallam. Cullum,
generally for Culham, may also represent the mis-
sionary Saint Colomb. In Newnham the adjective is
dative, as in Ger. Neuenheim, at the new home. In
Bonham, Frankham, and Pridham the suffix -ham has
been substituted for the French homme, bonhomme,
franc homme, prudhomme, while J erningham is a per-
version of the personal name Jernegan or Gernegan,
as Garnham is of Gernon, Old French for Beard (see
p. 199). Stead is cognate with Ger. Stadt, place, town,
and with staith, as in Bicker steth (p. 40). Armstead
means the dwelling of the hermit, Bensted the stead
of Benna (p. 75) or Bennet.

Stoke is originally distinct from Stock, a stump,
with which it has become fused in the compounds
Bostock, Brigstocke. Stow appears in the compound
Bristol (p. 99) and in Plaistow, play-ground (cf. Play-
sted). Thorp, cognate with Ger. Dorf, village, is
especially common in the eastern counties —

" By thirty bills I hurry down
Or slip between the ridges,
By twenty thorps, a. little town,
And half a hundred bridges."

(Tennyson, The Brook, 1. 5.)

It has also given Thrupp and probably Thripp, whence
Calthrop, Winthrop, Westrupp, etc. Ton, later Town,

SETTLEMENTS 123

gave also the northern Toon, still used in Scotland with
something of its original sense (see p. 102). Boston
is Botolf's town, Gunston Gunn's town. So also Tarle-
ton (Thurweald), Monkton (monk), Preston (priest).
Barton meant originally a barley-field, and is still used
in the west of England for a paddock. Wick appears
also as Wych, Weech, Its compounds cannot be
separated from those of wick, a creek (p. 116). Bromage
is for Bromwich, Greenidge for Greenwich, Prestage for
Prestwich. Killick probably represents Kilnwick and
Physick is imitative for Fishwick.

Worth was perhaps originally applied to land by a
river or to a holm (p. 117) ; cf. Ger. Donauwert,
Nonnenwert, etc. Harmsworth is for Harmondsworth ;
cf. Ebbsworth (Ebba), Shuttleworth (Sceotweald), Wads-
worth (Wada). Sometimes we find a lengthened form,
e.g. Allworthy, from aid, old (cf. Aldworth), Langworthy .
Brownsword is folk-etymology for Brownsworth, and
Record for Rickworth. Littleworth may belong to this
class, but it may also be a disparaging nickname.
This would make it equivalent to the imitative
Littleproud, formerly Littleprow, from Old Fr. and
Mid. Eng. prou, worth, value. To this group of
words may be added two more, which signify a mart,
viz. Cheap or Chipp (cf. Chepstow, Chipping Barnet,
etc.) and Staple, whence Huxtable, Stapleton, etc.
Liberty, that part of a city which, though outside
the walls, shares in the city privileges, and Parish
also occur as surnames, but the latter is usually for
Paris.

Many other words connected with the delimitation
of property occur commonly in surnames. Croft or
Craft, a small field, is common in compounds such as
Beecroft or Bear croft (barley), Haycraft (see hay, p. 124),

124 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

Oscroft (ox) , Meadowcroft, 1 Ry croft. Fold occurs usually
as Foulds, but we have compounds such as Nettle/old,
Penfold or Pinfold (p. 135). Sty, not originally limited
to pigs, has given Hardisty, the sty of Heardwulf.
Frith, a park or game preserve, is probably more
often the origin of a surname than the other frith
(p. 116). It is cognate with Ger. Friedhoi, cemetery.
Chase is still used of a park and Game once meant
rabbit-warren. Warren is Fr. garenne. Garth, the
Scandinavian doublet of Yard, and cognate with
Garden, has given the compounds Garside, Garfield,
Hogarth (from a place in Westmorland), and Apple-
garth, of which Applegate is a corruption. We have
a compound of yard in Wynyard, Anglo-Sax. win,
vine. We have also the name Close and its deriva-
tive Clowser. Gate, a barrier or opening, Anglo-Sax.
geat, is distinct from the Scandinavian gate, a street
(p. 128), though of course confused with it in surnames.
From the northern form we have Yates, Yeats, and
Yeatman, and the compounds Byatt, by gate, Hyatt,
high gate. Agate is for atte gate, and Lidgate, whence
Lidgett, means a swing gate, shutting like a lid. -Flad-
gate is for flood-gate. Here also belongs Barr. Hatch,
the gate at the entrance to a chase, survives in Colney
Hatch. The apparent dim. Hatchett is for Hatchard
(p. 81) ; cf. Everett for Everard (p. 17). Hay, also
Haig, Haigh, Haw, Hey, is cognate with Hedge. Like
most monosyllabic local surnames, it is commonly
found in the plural, Hayes, Hawes. The bird nick-
name Hedgecock exists also as Haycock. The curious-

1 I remember reading in some story of a socially ambitious lady
who adopted this commonplace name instead of Gubbins. The
latter name came over, as Gobin, with the Conqueror, and goes
back to Old Ger. Godberaht, whence Old Fr. Godibert.

SETTLEMENTSFAND ENCLOSURES 125

looking patronymics Orchardson and Townson are of
course corrupt. The latter is for Tomlinson and the
former perhaps from Achard (p. 81).

Several places and families in England are named
Hide or Hyde, which meant a certain measure of land.
The popular connection between this word and hide, a
skin, as in the story of the first Jutish settlement, is
a fable. It is connected with an Anglo-Saxon word
meaning household, which appears also in Huish, Anglo -
Sax. hi-wisc. Dike, or Dyke, and Mo'at, also Mott, both
have, or had, a double meaning. We still use dike,
which belongs to dig and ditch, both of a trench and a
mound, and the latter was the earlier meaning of Fr.
motte, now a clod. In Anglo-French we find moat used
of a mound fortress in a marsh. Now it is applied to
the surrounding water. From dike come the names
Dicker, Dickman, Grimsdick, etc. Sometimes the name
Dykes may imply residence near some historic earth-
work, such as Offa's Dyke, just as Wall, sometimes
pronounced Waugh in the north, may show connection
with the Roman wall. With these may be mentioned
the French name Fosse, whence the apparently pleo-
nastic Fosdyke and the name of Verdant Green's
friend, Mr. Four-in-hand Fosbrooke. Delves is from
Mid. Eng. delf, ditch. Jury is for Jewry, the quarter
allotted to the Jews, but Jewsbury is no doubt for
Dewsbury ; cf. Jewhurst for Dewhurst.

Here may be mentioned a few local surnames
which are hard to classify. We have the apparently
anatomical Back, Foot, Head, and, in compounds, -side.
Back seems to have been used of the region behind a
building or dwelling, as it still is at Cambridge. Its
plural has given Bax. But it was also a personal name
(p. 222), sometimes spelt Batch, We should expect

126 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

Foot to mean the base of a hill, but it always occurs
in early rolls as a personal name. It has also given
Foat and the dim. Footett. It appears to be cognate
with Ger. Alfons. Lightfoot, Barfoot are of course
nicknames. The simple Head, found as Mid. Eng.
del heved, is perhaps generally from a shop or tavern
sign. Fr. Tete, one of the origins of Tait, Tate, and
Ger. Haupt and Kopf also occur as surnames. As a
local suffix -head appears to mean top-end and is
generally shortened to -ett, e.g. Birkett 1 (cf . Birken-
head), Brockett (brook), Bromet and By omhead (broom),
Hazlitt (hazel). Fawcett is probably an accidental
spelling of Fossett, from fosse, or of Forcett from force,
a waterfall (Scand.). Broadhead may be a nickname,
like Fr. Grossetete and Ger. Breitkopf. The face-value
of Evershed is boar's head. Morshead may be the
nickname of mine host of the Saracen's Head or
may mean the end of the moor. So the names Aked
(oak), Blackett, Woodhead may be explained anatomi-
cally or geographically according to the choice of the
bearer. Perrett, usually a dim. of Peter, may some-
times represent the rather effective old nickname
" pear-head." Side is local in the uncomfortable
sounding Akenside (oak), Fearenside (fern), but Heavi-
side appears to be a nickname. Handy side may mean
" gracious manner," from Mid. Eng. side, cognate with
Ger. Sitte, custom. See Hendy (p. 211). The simple
end survives as Ind or Nind (p. 34) and in Overend
(p. 116), Townsend. Edge, earlier Egg (p. 31), has given
Titheredge, but the frequency of place-names begin-
ning with Edge, e.g. Edgeley, Edgington, Edgworth,
etc., suggests that it was also a personal name.

1 No doubt sometimes, like Burchett, Buckett, for the personal
name Burchard, Anglo-Sax. Burgheard.

HIGHWAYS 7"AND BYWAYS 127

Lynch, a boundary, is cognate with go\i-links. The
following sounds modern, but refers to people sitting
in a hollow among the sand-ridges —

" And are ye in the wont of drawing up wi' a! the gangrel bodies
that ye find cowering in a sa.nd-bunker upon the links ? "

(Redgauntlet, ch. xi.)

Pitt is found in the compound Bulpitt, no doubt the
place where the town bull was kept. It is also the
origin of the Kentish names Pett and Pettman. Arch
refers generally to a bridge. Lastly, there are three
words for a corner, viz. Hearne, Heme, Hume, Wyke,
the same word as Wick, a creek (p. 116), and Wray
(Scand.). The franklin tell us that "yonge clerkes "
desirous of knowledge —

" Seken in every halke and every heme
Particular sciences for to lerne " (F, 11 19).

Wray has become confused with Ray (p. 29). Its
compound thack-wray, the corner where the thatch was
stored, has given Thackeray.

Highways and Byways

We have already noticed the curious fact that, as
surnames, we always find the singular Street and the
plural Roades. The meaning of Street has changed
considerably since the days when Icknield Street and
Watling Street were great national roads. It is now
used exclusively of town thoroughfares, and has
become such a mere suffix that, while we speak of the
Oxford Road, we try to suppress the second word in
Oxford Street. To street belong our place-names and
surnames in Strat-, Stret-, etc., e.g. Stratton, Stretton,

128 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

Stredwick. The usual spelling Rhodes, for roads, is
also curious. In some cases the name is borne by
descendants of Jewish immigrants who took their
name from the island of Rhodes, while in others it
is identical with Royds (p. in), the earlier spelling of
which was also rodes. Way has a number of com-
pounds with intrusive -a-, e.g. Chattaway, Dallaway
(dale), Greenaway, Hathaway (heath), Westaway. But
Hanway is the name of a country (see p. 'ioo), and
Otway, Ottoway, is Old Fr. Otouet, a dim. of Odo.
Shipway is for sheep-way. In the north of England
the streets in a town are often called gates (Scand.) .
It is impossible to distinguish the compounds of this
gate from those of the native gate, a barrier (p. 124),
e.g. Norgate may mean North Street or North Gate.
Alley and Court both exist as surnames, but the latter
is from court in the sense of mansion, country house.
The curious spelling Caught may be seen over a shop
in Chiswick. Rowe has various origins (p. 8), but
often means a row of houses, and we find the com-
pound Townroe. Cosway, Cossey, is from causeway,
Fr. chaussee ; and Twitchen, Twitchell represent dialect
words used of a narrow passage and connected with
the Mid. English verb twiselen, to fork, or divide ;
Twiss must be of similar origin, for we find Robert
del twysse in 1367. Cf . Birtwistle and Entwistle. With
the above may be classed the west-country Shute, a
narrow street ; Vennell, also found as Fennell, a north-
country word for alley, Fr. venelle, dim. of Lat. vena,
vein ; Wynd, a court, also a north-country word,
probably from the verb wind, to twist, and the cognate
Went, a passage —

" Thorugh a goter, by a prive wente."

KFroilus and Criseyde, iii. 788.)

BUILDINGS 129

Water

Names derived from artificial watercourses are
Channell, now replaced as a common noun by the
learned form canal, Condy or Cundy, a well-known
name in Yorkshire, for the earlier Cunditt, conduit,
Gott, cognate with gut, used in Yorkshire for the
channel from a mill-dam and in Lincolnshire for a
water-drain on the coast, Lade, Leete, connected with
the verb to lead, and sometimes Shore (p. 116), which
was my grandfather's pronunciation of sewer. Gott
may also be a personal name, corresponding to Fr.
Got, which is sometimes aphetic for Margot. From
weir, lit. a protection, precaution, cognate with beware
and Ger. wehren, to protect, we have not only Weir,
but also Ware, Warr, Wear, and the more pretentious
Delawarr. The latter name passed from an Earl
Delawarr to a region in North America, and thus
to Fenimore Cooper's noble red men. Lock is more
often a land name, to be classed with Hatch (p. 124),
but was also used of a water-gate. Key was once the
usual spelling of quay. We have the two names com-
bined in the curious name Keylock . Port seldom belongs
here, as the Mid. English is almost always de la forte,
i.e. Gates. From well we have a very large number of
compounds, e.g. Cauldwell (cold), Hattiwell, the variants
of which, Holliwell, Hollowell, probably all represent
Mid. Eng. halt, holy. Here belongs also Winch, from
the device used for drawing water from deep wells.

Buildings

The greater number of the words to be dealt with
under this heading enter into the composition of
specific place-names. A considerable number of sur-
10

130 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

names are derived from the names of religious build-
ings, usually from proximity rather than actual
habitation. Such names are naturally of Greco-Latin
origin, and were either introduced directly into Anglo-
Saxon by the missionaries, or were adopted later in a
French form after the Conquest. It has already been
noted (p. 5) that Abbey is not generally what it seems,
but in some cases it is local, from Fr. abbaye, of which
the Provencal form Abadie was introduced by the
Huguenots. We find much earlier A bdy, taken straight
from the Greco-Lat. abbatia. The famous name
Chantrey is for chantry, Armitage was once the
regular pronunciation of Hermitage, and Chappell
a common spelling of Chapel —

" Also if you finde not the word you seeke for presently after
one sort of spelling, condemne me not forthwith, but consider how
it is used to be spelled, whether with double or single letters, as
Chappell, or Chapell" (Holyoak, Latin Diet., 1612).

We have also the Norman form Capel, but this may
be a nickname from Mid. Eng. capel, nag —

" Why nadstow (hast thou not) pit the caput in the lathe (barn) ? "

(A, 4088.)

A Galilee was a chapel or porch devoted to special
purposes —

" Those they pursued had taken refuge in the galilee of the
church " (Fair Maid of Perth, ch. ix.).

The tomb of the Venerable Bede is in the Galilee of
Durham Cathedral. I had a schoolfellow with this
uncommon name, now generally perverted to Galley.
In a play now running (Feb. 1913) in London, there
is a character named Sanctuary, a name found also in
Crockford and the London Directory. I have only

BUILDINGS 131

once come across the contracted form Sentry l (Daily
Telegraph, Dec. 26, 1912), and then under circumstances
which might .make quotation actionable. Purvis is
Mid. Eng. parvis, a porch, Greco-Lat. paradisus. It
may be the same as Provis, the name selected by Mr.
Magwitch on his return from the Antipodes (Great
Expectations, ch. xl.), but this may be for Provost.
Porch and Portch both occur as surnames, but Porcher
is Fr. porcher, a swineherd, and Portal is a Huguenot
name. Churcher and Kirker, Churchman and Kirk-
man, are usually local ; cf . Bridge/ and Bridgman.

The names Temple and Templeman were acquired
from residence near one of the preceptories of the
Knights Templars, and Spittlehouse (p. 34) is some-
times to be accounted for in a similar way (Knights
of the Hospital). We even find the surname Taber-
nacle. Musters is Old Fr. .moustiers" (moutiers), common
in French place-names, from Lat. monaster ium. The
word how, still used for an arch in some old towns,
has given the names Bow and Bowes. A medieval
statute, recently revived to baffle the suffragettes, was
originally directed against robbers and "pillers," i.e.
plunderers, but the name Piller is for pillar ; cf. the
French name Colonne. With these may be mentioned
Buttress and Carnell, the latter from Old Fr. camel
(creneau), a battlement.

As general terms for larger dwellings we find Hall,
House, also written Hose, and Seal, the last-named
from the Germanic original which has given Fr.
Lasalle, whence our surname Sale. To the same class
belong Place, Plaice, as in Cumnor Place. The

1 On the development in meaning of this word, first occurring
in the phrase " to take sentrie," i.e. refuge, see my Romance of
Words, ch. vii.

132 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

possession of such surnames does not imply ancestral
possession of Haddon Hall, Stafford House, etc., but
merely that the founder of the family lived under
the shadow of greatness. In compounds -house is
generally treated as in "workus," e.g. Bacchus
(p. 83), Bellows, Brewis, Duffus (dove), Kirkus, Loftus,
Malthus, Windus (wynd, p. 128). In connection
with Woodhouse it must be remembered that this
name was given to the man who played the part
of a " wild man of the woods " in processions and
festivities. William Power, skinner, called "Wode-
hous," died in London in 1391. Of similar origin is
Greenman. The tavern sign of the Green Man is some-
times explained as representing a forester in green,
but it was probably at first equivalent to the German
sign " Zum wilden Mann." Cassell is sometimes for
Castle, but is more often a local German name of recent
introduction. The northern Peel, a castle, as in the
Isle of Man, was originally applied to a stockade, Old
Fr. pel {pieu), a stake, Lat. palus. From it we have
Pillman. Keep comes from the central tower of the
castle, where the baron and his family kept, i.e. lived.
A moated Grange is a poetic figment, for the word
comes from Fr. grange, a barn (to Lat. granum),
hence Granger.

With Mill and the older Milne (p. 25) we may
compare Mullins, Fr. Desmoulins. Barnes is some-
times, but not always, what it seems (see p. 194) . With
it we may put Leathes, from an obsolete Scandina-
vian word for barn (see quot. p. 130), to which we owe
also the names Leatham and Latham. Mr. Oldbuck's
" ecstatic description " of the Roman camp with its
pratorium was spoilt by Edie Ochiltree's disastrous
interruption —

DWELLINGS 133

" Praetorian here, praetorian there, I mind the bigging o't."

(Antiquary, ch. iv.).

The obsolete verb to big, i.e. build, whence Biggar,
a builder, has given us Biggins, Biggs (p. 38), and
Newbigging, while from to build we have Newbould
and Newbolt. Cazenove, Ital. casa nuova, means ex-
actly the same. Probably related to build is the
obsolete Bottle, a building, whence Harbottle. A humble
dwelling was called a Board —

" Borde, a little house, lodging, or cottage of timber "

(Cotgrave) —

whence Boardman, Border. Other names were Booth,
Lodge, and Folley, Fr. feuillee, a hut made of branches —

" FeuilUe, an arbor, or bower, framed of leav'd plants, or
branches " (Cotgrave).

Scale, possibly connected with shealing, is a Scandi-
navian word used in the north for a shepherd's hut,
hence the surname Scales. In Bower and Bere, Beer,
we have names related to byre, a hut, cow-house,
whence Byers. Chaucer says of the poor widow —

" Ful sooty was hir bour and eek hire halle."

(B, 4022.)

Hence the names Bowerman, Boorman, Burman.

But the commonest of names for a humble dwelling
was cot or cote —

" Born and fed in rudenesse
As in a cote or in an oxe stalle "

(E, 397)—

the inhabitant of which was a Cotman, Cotter, or,
diminutively, Cottrell, Cotterill. Hence the frequent
occurrence of the name Coates. There are also numer-
ous compounds, e.g. Alcott (old), Norcott, Kingscote,

134 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

and the many variants of Caldecott, Calcott, the
cold dwelling, especially common as a village name
in the vicinity of the Roman roads. It is supposed
to have been applied, like Coldharbour, to deserted
posts. The name Cotton is sometimes from the dative
plural of the same word, though, when of French
origin, it represents Coton, dim. of Cot, aphetic for
Jacot.

Names such as Kitchin, Spence, a north-country
word for pantry (see p. 186), and Mews, originally
applied to the hawk-coops (see Mewer, p. 150), point
to domestic employment. The simple Mew, common
in Hampshire, is a bird nickname. Scammell
preserves an older form of shamble(s), originally
the benches on which meat was exposed for sale.
The name Currie, or Curry, is too common to be
referred entirely to the Scot. Corrie, a mountain
glen, or to Curry in Somerset, and I conjecture that
it sometimes represents Old Fr. and Mid. Eng.
curie, a kitchen, which is the origin of Petty Cury in
Cambridge and of the famous French name Curie.
Nor can Furness be derived exclusively from the
Furness district of Lancashire. It must sometimes
correspond to the common French name Dufour, from
four, oven. We also have the name Ovens. Stables,
when not identical with Staples (p. 123), belongs to
the same class as Mews. Chambers, found in Scotland
as Chalmers, is official, the medieval de la Chambre
often referring to the Exchequer Chamber of the City
of London. Bellchambers has probably no connection
with this word. It appears to be an imitative spelling
of Belencombre, a place near Dieppe ; for the entry
de Belencumbre is of frequeut occurrence.

Places of confinement are represented by Gale,

SHOP SIGNS 135

gaol (p. 32), Penn, whence Inkpen (Berkshire), Pond,
Pound, and Penfold or Pinfold. But Gales is for Anglo-
Fr. Galles, Wales. Butts comes from the archery
ground, while Butt is rather to be referred to the
French name Bout (p. 75) or to Budd (p. 75). Cor-
dery, for de la corderie, of the rope-walk, has been
confused with the much more picturesque Corderoy,
i.e. cceur de roi.

Shop Signs

As is well known, medieval shops had signs instead
of numbers, and traces of this custom are still to be
seen in country towns. It is quite obvious that town
surnames would readily spring into existence from such
signs. The famous name Rothschild, always mispro-
nounced in English, goes back to the "red shield" over
Nathan Rothschild's shop in the Jewry of Frankfurt ;
and within the writer's memory two brothers named
Grainge in the little town of Uxbridge were familiarly
known as Bible Grainge and Gridiron Grainge. Many
names of animals are to be referred partly to this
source, e.g. Bull, Hart, Lamb, Lyon, Ram, Roebuck,
Stagg ; Cock, Falcon, Peacock, Raven, Swann, etc., all
still common as tavern signs. The popinjay, or parrot,
is still occasionally found as Pobgee, Popjoy. These
surnames all have, of course, an alternative explana-
tion (ch. xxiii.). Here also usually belong Angel and
Virgin. But the largest class of such names probably
consists of those taken from figures used in heraldry
or from objects which indicated the craft practised.
This would seem to be the explanation of Crownin-
shield. Other examples are Arrow, Bell, Buckle, Cross-
keys, Crowne, Crozier, Gauntlett, Hatt, Home, Image,

136 THE HAUNTS OF MAN

Key, Littey, Meatyard, measuring wand —

" Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in meteyard, in
weight, or in measure" (Lev. xix. 35) —

Mullett, 1 Rose, Shears, and perhaps Blades, Shipp,
Spun, Starr, Sword. Thomas Palle, called " Sheres,"
died in London, 1376.

But here again we must walk delicately. The
Germanic name Hatto, borne by the wicked bishop who
perished in the Mauseturm, gave the French name
Hatt with the accusative form Hatton,* Horn is an old
personal name, as in the medieval romance of King
Horn, Shipp is a common provincialism for sheep}
Starr has another explanation (p. 219) and Bell has
several (p. 8). I should guess that Porteous was the
sign used by some medieval writer of mass-books
and breviaries. Its oldest form is the Anglo-Fr.
porte-hors, corresponding to medieval Lat. portiforium,
a breviary, lit. what one carries outside, a portable
prayer-book —

" For on my porthors here I make an oath."

(B, 1321.)

But as the name is found without prefix in the Hundred
Rolls, it may have been a nickname conferred on some
clericus who was proud of so rare a possession.

1 A five-pointed star. Old Fr. molette, rowel of a spur.

2 In Old French a. certain number of names, mostly of Germanic
origin, had an accusative in -on, e.g. Guy, Guyon, Hugues, Hugon,
From Lat. Pontius came Poinz, Poinson, whence our Poyntz, less
pleasingly Punch, and Punshon. In the Pipe Rolls these are also
spelt Pin-, whence Pinch, Pinchin, and Pinches.

s Hence the connection between the ship and the ha'porth of tar.

CHAPTER XIV

NORMAN BLOOD

" Such, however, is the illusion of antiquity and wealth that
decent and dignified men now existing boast their descent from
these filthy thieves" (Emerson, English Traits, ch. iv.).

Not every Norman or Old French name need be
included in the group described by Emerson when
talking down to an uneducated audience. In fact,
it is probable that the majority of genuine French
names belong to a later period, for, although the baron
who accompanied the Conqueror would in many cases
keep his old territorial designation, the minor ruffian
would, as a rule, drop the name of the obscure hamlet
from which he came and assume some surname more
convenient in his new surroundings. Local names of
Old French origin are usually taken from the provinces
and larger towns which had a meaning for English
ears. I have given examples of such in chapter xi.
Of course it is easy to take a detailed map of
Northern France and say, without offering any proof,
that "Avery (p. 82) is from Evreux, Belcher (p. 196)
from Bellecourt, Custance (p. 95) from Coutances,"
and so on. But any serious student knows this to be
idiotic nonsense. The fact that, except in some noble
families, such as de Vesci, whence Vesey, Voysey, and
Scottish Veitch, the surname was not hereditary till
centuries after the Conquest, justifies any bearer of a

137

138 NORMAN BLOOD

Norman name taken from a village or smaller locality
in repudiating all connection with the ' ' filthy thieves
and conjecturing descent from some decent artisan
belonging to one of the later immigrations.

That a considerable number of aristocratic families,
and others, bear an easily recognizable French town
or village name is of course well known, but it will
usually be found that such names are derived from
places which are as plentiful in France as our own
Ashleys, Bartons, Burtons, Langleys, Newtons, Sut-
tons, etc., are in England. In some cases a local
French name has spread in an exceptional manner.
Examples are Baines (Bains, 2 '), Gurney (Gournai, 6),
Vernon (3) . But usually in such cases we find a large
number of spots which may have given rise to the sur-
name, e.g. Beaumont (46, without counting Belmont),
Dampier (Dampierre, i.e. St. Peter's, 28), Daubeney,
Dabney (Aubigne, 4, Aubigny, 17), Ferrers (Ferrieres,
22), Nevill (Neuville, 58), Nugent (Nogent, 17), Villiers
(58). This last name, representing Vulgar Lat. vil-
larium, is the origin of Ger. -weiler, so common in
village names along the old Roman roads, e.g. Baden-
weiler, Froschweiler, etc.

When we come to those surnames of this class which

have remained somewhat more exclusive, we generally

find that the place-name is also rare. Thus Hawtrey

is from Hauterive (7), Pierpoint from Pierrepont (5),

Furneaux from Fourneaux (5), Vipont and Vipan from

Vieux-Pont (3), and there are three places called

Percy. The following have two possible birthplaces

1 The figures in brackets indicate the number of times that the
French local name occurs in the Postal Directory. This is the usual
explanation of Baines, which is found with de in the Hundred Rolls.
But I think it was sometimes a nickname, bones, applied to a thin
man. I find William Banes in Lancashire in 1252 ; cf. Langbain,

CORRUPT FORMS 139

each — Bellew or Pellew (Belleau), Cantelo (Canteloup 1 ),
Mauleverer (Maulevrier), Mompesson (Mont Pincon or
Pinchon), Montmorency, Mortimer (Morte-mer). The
following are unique — Carteret, Doll 1 (Dol), Fiennes,
Fumival (Fournival), Greville, Har court, Melville
(Meleville), Montr esor, Mowbray (Monbrai), Sackville
(Sacquenville), V enables. These names are taken at
random, but the same line of investigation can
be followed up by any reader who thinks it worth
while.

Apart from aristocratic questions, it is interesting
to notice the contamination which has occurred be-
tween English and French surnames of local origin.
The very common French suffix -ville, is regularly
confounded with our -field. Thus Summerfield is the
same name as Somerville, Dangerfield is for d'Anger-
ville, Belfield for Belleville, Blomfield for Blonville,
and Stutfield for Estouteville, while Grenville, Granville
have certainly become confused with our Grenfell,
green fell, and Greenfield. Camden notes that Turber-
ville became Troublefield, and I have found the inter-
mediate Trubleville in the twelfth century. The case of
Tess Durbeyfield will occur to every reader. The suffix
-fort has been confused with our -ford and -forth, so that
Rochford is in some cases for Rochefort and Beeforth
for Beaufort or Belfort. With the first syllable of
Beeforth we may compare Beevor for Beauvoir, Bel-
voir, Beecham for Beauchamp, and Beamish for Beau-
mais. The name Beamish actually occurs as that of
a village in Durham, the earlier form of which points
to Old French origin, from beau mes, Lat. bellum
mansum, a fair manse, i.e. dwelling. Otherwise it

1 But the doublet Chanteloup, champ de loup, is common.

2 This may also be a metronymic, from Dorothy.

140 NORMAN BLOOD

would be tempting to derive the surname Beamish
from Ger. bohmisch, earlier behmisch, Bohemian.

A brief survey of French spot-names which have
passed into English will show that they were acquired
in exactly the same way as the corresponding English
names. Norman ancestry is, however, not always to
be assumed in this case. Until the end of the four-
teenth century a large proportion of our population
was bi-lingual, and names accidentally recorded in
Anglo-French may occasionally have stuck. Thus
the name Boyes or Boyce may spring from a man of
pure English descent who happened to be described as
du bois instead of atte wood. This is, however, rarely
the case. While English spot-names have as a rule
shed both the preposition and the article (p. 104),
French usually keeps one or both, though these were
more often lost when the name passed into England.
Thus our Roach is not a fish-name, but corresponds
to Fr. Laroche or Delaroche ; and the blind pirate Pew,
if not a Welshman, ap Hugh, was of the race of
Dupuy, from Old Fr. puy, a hill, Lat. podium, a
height, gallery, etc., whence also our pew, once a
raised platform.

In some cases the prefix has passed into English ;
e.g. Diprose is from des preaux, of the meadows, a
name assumed by Boileau among others. There are,
of course, plenty of places in France called Les
Preaux, but in the case of such a name we need not
go further than possession of, or residence by, a
piece of grass-land —

" Je sais un paysan qu'on appelait Gros-Pierre,
Qui, n'ayant pour tout bien qu'un seul quartier de terre,
Y fit tout alentour faire un fosse bourbeux,
Et de monsieur de I'Isle en prit le nom pompeux."

(Moli&re, L'Ecole des Femmes, i. 1.)

TREE NAMES 141

The Old French singular fireal is perhaps the
origin of Pratt, Prawle. Similarly Preece, sometimes
for Price, is earlier found as Prees, i.e. des fires.
With Boyes (p. 140) we may compare Tallis from Fr.
taillis, a copse (tailler, to cut). Garrick, a Huguenot
name, is Fr. garigue, an old word for heath.

Trees have in all countries a strong influence on
topographical names, and hence on surnames. Frean,
though usually from the Scandinavian name Frsena,
is sometimes for Fr. fr£ne, ash, Lat. fraxinus, while
Cain and Kaines 1 are Norm, queue (chene), oak. The
modern French for beech is hetre, Du. heester, but Lat.
fagus has given a great many dialect forms which
have supplied us with the surnames Fay, Foy, and
the plural dim. Failes. Here also I should put the
name Defoe, assumed by the writer whose father was
satisfied with Foe. With Quatrefages, four beeches,
we may compare such English names as Fiveash,
Twelvetrees, and Snooks, for " seven oaks."

In Latin the suffix -Uum was used to designate a
grove or plantation. This suffix, or its plural -eta, is
very common in France, becoming successively -ei(e),
-oi(e), -ai(e). The name Dobree is a Guernsey spelling
of d'Aubray, Lat. arboretum, which was dissimilated
(p. 36) into alboretum. Darblay, the name of Fanny
Burney's husband, is a variant. From au(l)ne, alder,
we have aunai, whence our Dawnay. So also frenai
has given Freeney, chenai, Chaney, and the Norm, quenai
is one origin of Kenney, while the older chesnai appears
in Chesney. Houssaie from houx, holly, gives Hussey ;
chastenai, chestnut grove, exists in Nottingham as
Chasteney ; coudrai, hazel copse, gives Cowdrey and

1 There is one family of Keynes derived specifically from Cha-
haignes (Sarthe).

142 NORMAN BLOOD

Cowdery ; Verney and Varney are from vernal, grove of
alders, of Celtic origin, and Viney corresponds to the
French name Vinoy, Lat. vinetum. We have also
Chinnery, Chenerey from the extended chSnerai, and
Pomeroy from pommerai. Here again the name offers
no clue as to the exact place of origin. There are
in the French postal directory eight places called
Epinay, from epine, thorn, but these do not exhaust
the number of " spinnies " in France. Also connected
with tree-names are Conyers, Old Fr. coigniers, quince-
trees, and Pirie, Perry, Anglo-Fr. perie, a collective
from peire {poire).

Among Norman names for a homestead the favourite
is mesnil, from Vulgar Lat. mansionile, which enters
into a great number of local names. It has given our
Meynell, and is also the first element of Mainwaring,
Mannering from mesnil-Warin. The simple mes, a
southern form of which appears in Dumas, has given
us Mees and Meese, which are thus etymological
doublets of the word manse. With Beamish (p. 139)
we may compare Bellasis, from bel-assis, fairly situated.
Poyntz is sometimes for des ftonts ; cf . Pierpoint for
Pierrepont. Travers or Travis means a crossing, or a
road starting off from the highway.

Even Norman names which were undoubtedly borne
by leaders among the Conqueror's companions are
now rarely found among the noble, and many a des-
cendant of these once mighty families cobbles the
shoes of more recent invaders. Even so the descend-
ants of the Spanish nobles who conquered California
are glad to peddle vegetables at the doors of San
Francisco magnates whose fathers dealt in old clothes
in some German Judengasse.

CHAPTER XV

OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

" When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman ? "

Chant of Wat Tyler's followers.

The occupative name would, especially in villages,
tend to become the most natural surname. It is not
therefore surprising to find so large a number of this
class among our commonest surnames, e.g. Smith,
Taylor, Wright, Walker, Turner, Clark, Cooper, etc.
And, as the same craft often persisted in a family for
generations, it was probably this type of surname
which first became hereditary. On the other hand,
such names as Cook, Gardiner, Carter, etc., have no>
doubt in some cases prevailed over another surname
lawfully acquired (see p. 5). It is impossible to fix
an approximate date for the definite adoption of sur-
names of this class. It occurred earlier in towns
than in the country, and by the middle of the four-
teenth century we often find in the names of London
citizens a contradiction between the surname and the
trade-name ; e.g. Walter Ussher, tanner, John Botoner,
girdler, Roger Carpenter, pepperer, Richard le Hunte,
chaundeler, occur 1336-52. The number of sur-
names belonging to this group is immense, for every
medieval trade and craft was highly specialized and
its privileges were jealously guarded. The general

143

144 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

public, which now, like Issachar, crouches between the
trusts and the trades unions, was in the middle ages
similarly victimized by the guilds of merchants and
craftsmen. Then, as now, it grumblingly recognized
that, " Plus 9a change, plus ca reste la meme chose,"
and went on enduring. 1

By dealing with a few essential points at the outset
we shall clear the ground for considering the various
groups of surnames connected with trade, craft, pro-
fession or office. To begin with, it is certain that such
names as Pope, Cayzer, King, Earl, Bishop are nick-
names, very often conferred on performers in religious
plays or acquired in connection with popular festivals
and processions —

" Names also have been taken of civil honours, dignities and
estate, as King, Duke, Prince, Lord, Baron, Knight, Valvasor or
Vavasor, Squire, Castellan, partly for that their ancestours were
such, served such, acted such parts ; or were Kings of the Bean,
Christmas-Lords, etc." (Camden).

We find corresponding names in other languages,
and some of the French names, usually preceded by
the definite article, have passed into English, e.g.
Lempriere, a Huguenot name, and Leveque, whence our
Levick, Vick, Veck (p. 33). Baron generally appears
as Barron, and Duke, used in Mid. English of any
leader, is often degraded to Duck, whence the dim.
Duckett. But all three of these names can also be

1 If a student of philology were allowed to touch on such high
matters as legislation, I would moralize on the word kiddle, meaning
an illegal kind of weir used for fish-poaching, which has given our
name Kiddell. From investigations made with a view to discovering
the origin of the word, I came to the conclusion that all the legisla-
tive powers in England spent three centuries in passing enactments
against these devices, with the inevitable consequence that they
became ever more numerous.

SOCIAL GRADES 145

referred to Marmaduke. We have also the imitative
Ducat. It would be tempting to put Palsgrave in
this class. Prince Rupert, the Pfalzgraf, i.e. Count
Palatine, was known as the Palsgrave in his day, but
I have not found the title early enough.

With Lord we must put the northern Laird, and,
in my opinion, Senior ; for, if we notice how much
commoner Young is than Old, and Fr. Lejeune than
Levieux, we must conclude that Junior, a very rare
surname, ought to be of much more frequent occur-
rence than Senior, Synyer, a fairly common name.
There can be little doubt that Senior is usually a
latinization of the medieval le seigneur, whence also
Saynor. Knight is not always knightly, for Anglo-
Sax, cniht means servant ; cf . Ger. Knecht. The word
got on in the world, with the consequence that the
name is very popular, while its medieval compeers,
knave, varlet, villain, have, even when adorned with
the adj. good, dropped out of the surname list. Bon-
valet, Bonvarlet, Bonvillain are still common surnames
in France. From Knight we have the compound Road-
night, a mounted servitor. Thus Knight is more often
a true occupative name, and the same applies to Dring
or Dreng, a Scandinavian name of similar meaning.

Other names from the middle rungs of the social
ladder are also to be taken literally, e,g. Franklin, a
freeholder, Anglo-Fr. frankelein —

" How called you your franklin, Prior Aylmer ? "
" Cedric," answered the Prior, " Cedric the Saxon "

(Ivanhoe, ch. i.) —

Burgess, Freeman, Freeborn, this latter sometimes for
Freebairn and existing already as the Anglo-Saxon
personal name Freobeorn. Denison (p. 14) is occa-
11

146 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

sionally an accommodated form of denizen, Anglo-Fr.
deinzein, a burgess enjoying the privileges belonging
to those who lived " deinz (in) la cite." In 1483 a
certain Edward Jhonson —

" Sued to be mayde Denison for fer of y e payment of y subsedy."
[Letter to Sir William Stonor, June 9, 1483-)

Bond is from Anglo-Sax. bonda, which means simply
agriculturist. The word is of Icelandic origin and
related to Boor, another word which has deteriorated
and is rare as a surname, though the name Bauer
is common enough in Germany. Holder is translated
by Tennant. For some other names applied to the
humbler peasantry see p. 133.

To return to the social summit, we have Kingson,
often confused with the local Kingston, and its Anglo-
French equivalent Fauntleroy. Faunt, aphetic for
Anglo-Fr. enfaunt, is common in Mid. English. When
the mother of Moses had made the ark of bulrushes,
or, as Wyclif calls it, the " jonket of resshen," she —

" Putte the litil faunt with ynne "

(Exodus ii. 3).

The Old French accusative (p. 9, n.) was also used
as a genitive, as in Bourg-le-roi, Bourg-la-reine, corre-
sponding to our Kingsbury and Queensborough. We
have a genitive also in Flowerdew, found in French
as Flourdieu. Lower, in his Patronymica Britannica
(i860), the first attempt at a dictionary of English
surnames, 1 conjectures Fauntleroy to be from an

1 I have quoted this " etymology " because it is too funny
to be lost; but a good deal of useful information can be found
in Lower, especially with regard to the habitat of well-known
names.

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES 147

ancient French war-cry D6fendez le roi ! for " in course
of time, the meaning of the name being forgotten, the
de would be dropped, and the remaining syllables
would easily glide into Fauntleroy."

Names of ecclesiastics must usually be nicknames,
because medieval churchmen were not entitled to have
descendants. This appears clearly in such an entry as
" Johannes Monacus et uxor ejus Emma," living in
Kent in the twelfth century. But these names are so
numerous that I have put them with the Canterbury
Pilgrims (ch. xvii.). Three of them maybe mentioned
here in connection with a small group of occupative
surnames of puzzling form. We have noticed (p. 104)
that monosyllabic, and some other, surnames of local
origin frequently take an -s, partly by analogy with
names like Wills, Walts, etc. We rarely find this -s
in the case of occupative names, but Parsons, Vicars
or Vickers, and Monks are common, and in fact the
first two are scarcely found without the -s. To these
we may add Reeves (p. 164), Grieves (p. 181), and the
well-known Nottingham name Mellers (p. 164). The
explanation seems to be that these names are true
genitives, and that John Parsons was John the
Parson's man, while John Monks was employed by
the monastery. Vigors or Vigers I guess to be formed
in the same way from Fr. viguier —

" Viguier, the ordinary judge of a country town " (Cotgrave).

Another exceptional group is that of names formed
by adding -son to the occupative names, the com-
monest being perhaps Clarkson, Cookson, Smithson, and
Wrightson'. To this class belongs Grayson, which
Bardsley clearly shows to be equivalent to the grieve 's
son.

148 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

Our occupative names are both English and French, 1
the two languages being represented by those impor-
tant tradesmen Baker and Butcher. The former is
reinforced by Bullinger, Fr. boulanger, and Furner •

" Fournier, a baker, or one that keeps, or governs a common
oven" (Cotgrave).

In some other cases the English and French names
for the same trade both survive, e.g. Cheeseman and
Firminger, Old Fr. formagier (frontage).

We have as endings -er, -ier, the latter often made
into -yer, -ger, as in Lockyer, Sawyer, Kidger (p. 181),
Woodger,* and -or, -our, as in Taylor, Jenoure (p. 33).
The latter ending, corresponding to Modern Fr. -eur,
represents Lat. -or, -orem, but we tack it on to English
words as in "sailor," or substitute it for -er, -ier, as
in Fermor, for Farmer, Fr. fermier. In the Privy Purse
Expenses of that careful monarch Henry VII. occurs
the item —

" To bere drunken at a fermors house . . is."

In the same way we replace the Fr. -our, -eur by -er, as
in Turner, Fr. toumeur, Ginner, Jenner for Jenoure.

The ending -er, -ier represents the Lat. -arius. It
passed not only into French, but also into the
Germanic languages, replacing the Teutonic agential
suffix which consisted of a single vowel. We have
a few traces of this oldest group of occupative names,
e.g. Webb, Mid. Eng. webbe, Anglo-Sax. webb-a, and
Hunt, Mid. Eng. hunte, Anglo-Sax. hunt-a —

"With hunte and home and houndes hym bisyde "

(A, 1678)—

1 We have also a few Latinizations. This type of name is much
commoner in Germany, e.g. Avenarius, oat-man, Fabricius, smith,
Textor, weaver, etc. Mercator, of map projection fame, was a
German named Kaufmann.

2 Woodyer, Woodger may also be for wood-hewer. See Stanier
(p. 21).

NAMES IN -STER 149

which still hold the field easily against Webber and
Hunter. So also, the German name Beck represents
Old High Ger. becch-o, baker. To these must be added
Kemp, a champion, a very early loan-word connected
with Lat. campus, field, and Wright, originally the
worker, Anglo-Sax. wyrht-a. Camp is sometimes for
Kemp, but may be also from the latinized in campo,
i.e. Field. Of similar formation is Clapp, from an
Anglo-Sax. nickname, the clapper —

" Osgod Clapa, King Edward Confessor's staller, was cast upon
the pavement of the Church by a demon's hand for his insolent
pride in presence of the relics (of St. Edmund, King and Martyr)."
(W. H. Hutton, Bampton Lectures, 1903.)

The ending -ster was originally feminine, and
applied to trades chiefly carried on by women, e.g.
Baxter, Bagster, baker, Brewster, Simister, sempster,
Webster, etc., but in process of time the distinction
was lost, so that we find Blaxter and Whitster for
Blacker, Blaker, and Whiter, both of which, curiously
enough, have the same meaning —

" Bleykester or whytster, candidarius" (Prompt. Pan.) —

for this black represents Mid. Eng. Mac, related to
bleak and bleach, and meaning pale —

"Blake, wan of colour, blesme ipUme)" (Palsgrave).

Occupative names of French origin are apt to
vary according to the period and dialect of their
adoption. For Butcher we find also Booker, Bowker,
and sometimes the later Bosher, Busher, with the
same sound for the ch as in Labouchlre, the lady
butcher. But Busher is usually wood-monger, Old
Fr. busche (buche), log, and Boger and Bodger represent
rather an archaic spelling of Bowyer. Butcher, origin-
ally a dealer in goat's flesh, Fr. bouc, has ousted

150 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

flesher. German still has half a dozen surnames de-
rived from names for this trade, e.g. Fleischer, Fleisch-
mann, 1 Metzger, Schlechter; but our flesher has been
absorbed by Fletcher, a maker of arrows, Fr. fleche.
Fletcher Gate at Nottingham was formerly Flesher
Gate. The undue extension of Taylor has already
been mentioned (p. 44). Another example is Barker,
which has swallowed up the Anglo-Fr. berquier, a
shepherd, Fr. berger, with the result that the Barkers
outnumber the Tanners by three to one — ■

" ' What craftsman are you ? ' said our King,
' I pray you, tell me now.'
' I am a barker,' quoth the tanner ;
' What craftsman art thou ? ' "

(Edward IV. and the Tanner of Tamworth.)

The name seems to have been applied also to the
man who barked trees for the tanner.

With Barker it seems natural to mention Mewer,
of which I find one representative in the London
Directory. The medieval le muur had charge of the
mews in which the hawks were kept while moulting
(Fr. muer, Lat. mutare). Hence the phrase " mewed
up." The word seems to have been used for any kind
of coop. Chaucer tells us of the Franklin —

" Ful many a fat partrich hadde he in muw " (A, 349).

I suspect that some of the Muirs (p. 113) spring
from this important office. Similarly C layer has been
absorbed by the noble Clare, Kayer, the man by the
quay, by Care, and Blower, whether of horn or bellows,
has paid tribute to the local Bloor, Blore. Sewer, an

L Hellenized as Sarkander. This was a favourite trick of German
scholars at the Renaissance period. Well-known examples are
Melancthon (Schwarzerd), Neander (Neumann).

MISSING TRADESMEN 151

attendant at table, aphetic for Old Fr. asseour, a
setter, is now a very rare name. As we know that
sewer, a drain, became shore, it is probable that the
surname Shore sometimes represents this official or
servile title. And this same name Shore, though not,
particularly common, and susceptible of a simple local
origin, labours under grave suspicion of having also
enriched itself at the expense of the medieval le suur,
the shoemaker, Lat. sutor-em, whence Fr. Lesueur.
This would inevitably become Sewer and then Shore,
as above. Perhaps, in the final reckoning, Shaw is
not altogether guiltless, and we also find the surname
Sure.

The medieval le suur brings us to another problem,
viz. the poor show made by the craftsmen who clothed
the upper and lower extremities of our ancestors.
The name hatter, once frequent enough, appears to be
extinct, and Capper is not very common. The name
shoemaker has met with the same fate, though the
trade is represented by the Lat. Sutor, whence Scot.
Souter. Here belong also Cor drier, Codner, 1 Old Fr.
cordouanier (cor downier), a cordwainer, a worker in
Cordovan leather, and Corser, Cosser, earlier corviser,
corresponding to the French name Courvoisier, also
derived from Cordova. Chaucer, in describing the
equipment of Sir Thopas, mentions —

"His shoon of cordewane" (B, 1922).

The scarcity of Groser, grocer, is not surprising, for
the word, aphetic for engrosser, originally meaning a
wholesale dealer, one who sold en gros, is of compara-
tively late occurrence. His medieval representative

1 Confused, of course, with the local Codnor (Derbyshire).

152 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

was Spicer. On the other hand, many occupative
names which are now obsolete, or practically so, still
survive strongly as surnames. Many examples of these
will be found in chapters xvii.-xx.

Some occupative names are rather deceptive. Kisser,
which is said still to exist, means a maker of cuishes,
thigh-armour, Fr. cuisses —

" Helm, cuish, and breastplate streamed with gore."

{Lord of the Isles, iv. 33.)

Corker is for caulker, i.e. one who stopped the chinks
of ships and casks, originally with lime (Lat. calx) —

" Sir, we have a chest beneath the hatches, caulk 'd and
bitumed ready" (Pericles iii. 1).

Cleaver represents Old Fr. clavier, a mace-bearer.
Lat. clava, a club, or a door-keeper, Lat. clavis, a key.
Perhaps even clavus, a nail, must also be considered,
for a Latin vocabulary of the fifteenth century tells
us —

" Clawes, -vos vel -vas qui fert sit claviger."

Neither Bowler nor Scorer are connected with cricket.
The former made wooden bowls, and the latter was
sometimes . a scourer, or scout, Mid. Eng. scurrour,
from the Old Fr. verb escourre, Lat. excurrere, to
run out, but perhaps more frequently a peaceful
scullion, Fr. ecurer, to scour, Lat. ex-curare —
" Escureur, a scourer, cleanser, feyer 1 " (Cotgrave).

A Leaper did not always leap (p. 165) . In some cases
the name is for le leper, a common medieval entry,
generally to be regarded as a nickname. In others it
may represent a maker of leaps, i.e. fish baskets, or
perhaps a man who hawked fish in such a basket. A

1 A sweeper, now swallowed up, as a surname, by Fair.

SPELLING OF TRADE-NAMES 153

Slayer made slays, part of a weaver's loom, and a
Bloomer worked in a bloom-smithy, from Anglo-Sax.
blbma, a mass of hammered iron. Weightman and
Wayman represent Mid. Eng. wa\eman, hunter; cf.
the common German surname Weidemann, of cognate
origin. Reader and Booker are not usually literary.
The former is for Reeder, a thatcher — ■

" Redare of howsys, calamator, arundinarius " (Prompt. Pan.) —

and the latter is a Norman variant of Butcher.

The spelling of occupative surnames often differs
from that now associated with the trade itself. In
Naylor, Taylor, and Tyler 1 we have the archaic pre-
ference for y. Our ancestors thought sope as good
a spelling as soap, hence the name Soper. A Plummer,
i.e. a man who worked in lead, Lat. plumbum, is now
written, by etymological reaction, plumber, though
the restored letter is not sounded. A man who dealt
in 'arbs originated the name Arber, which we should
now replace by herbalist. We have a restored spelling
in clerk, though educated people pronounce the word
as it was once written —

" Clarke, or he thatreadeth distinctly, clericus."

(Holy oak's Lat. Diet., 1612.)

In many cases we are unable to say exactly what is
the occupation indicated. We may assume that a
Setter and a Tipper did setting and tipping, and both
are said to have been concerned in the arrow industry.
If this is true, I should say that Setter might repre-
sent the Old Fr. saieteur, arrow-maker, from saiete,

1 It may be noted here that John Tiler of Dartford, who killed a
tax-gatherer for insulting his daughter, was not Wat Tiler, who was
killed at Smithfield for insulting the King. The confusion between
the two has led to much sympathy being wasted on a ruffian.

154 0F OCCUPATIVE NAMES

an arrow, Lat. sagitta. But in a medieval vocabulary
we find " setter of mes, dapifer," which would make
it the same as Sewer (p. 151). Similarly, when we
consider the number of objects that can be tipped,
we shall be shy of defining the activity of the Tipper
too closely. I conjecture that a Trinder, earlier
trender, was the same as a Roller, but I cannot say
what they rolled —

" Lat hym rotten and trenden withy nne hymself the lyght of his
ynwarde sighte " (Boece, 1043).

There are also some names of this class to which
we can with certainty attribute two or more origins.
Boulter means a maker of bolts for crossbows, 1 but also
a sifter, from the obsolete verb to bolt —

" The fanned snow, that's bolted
By the northern blasts twice o'er."

(Winter's Tale, iv. 3.)

Corner means horn-blower, Fr. cor, horn, and is also a
contraction of coroner, but its commonest origin is local,
in angulo, in the corner. Currer and Curry er are gener-
ally connected with leather, but Henry VII. bestowed
£3 on the currer that brought tidings of Perkin War-
beck. Garner has five possible origins : (i) a contrac-
tion of gardener, (ii) from the French personal name
Gamier, Ger. Werner, (iii) Old Fr. grenier, grain-keeper,
(iv) Old Fr. garennier, warren keeper, (v) local, from
garner, Fr. grenier, Lat. granarium. In the next chap-
ter will be found, as a specimen problem, an investiga-
tion of the name Rutter.

Two phonetic phenomena should also be noticed.
One is the regular insertion of n before the ending
-ger, as in Firminger (p. 148), Massinger (p. 185), Pot-

1 How many people who use the expression " bolt upright "
associate it with " straight as a dart " ?

PHONETIC CHANGES 155

tinger (p. 176), and in Arminger, Clavinger, from the
latinized armiger, esquire, and claviger, mace-bearer,
etc. (p. 152). The other is the fact that many occu-
pative names ending in -rer lose the -er by dissimila-
tion (p. 36). Examples are Armour for armourer,
Barter for barterer, Buckler for bucklerer, but also
for buckle-maker, Callender for calenderer, one who
calendered, i.e., pressed, cloth —

" And my good friend the callender
Will lend his horse to go."

(John Gilpin, 1. 22) —

Coffer, for cofferer, a treasurer, Cover, for coverer,
i.e. tiler, Fr. couvreur, when it does not correspond
to Fr. cuvier, i.e. a maker of cuves, vats, Ginger,
Grammer, for grammarer, Paternoster, maker of pater-
nosters or rosaries, Pepper, Sellar, for cellarer (see p. 29),
Tabor, for Taberer, player on the taber. Here also
belongs Treasure, for treasurer. Salter is sometimes
for sautrier, a player on the psaltery. We have the
opposite process in poulterer for Poulter (p. 15), and
caterer for Cator (p. 33).

Such names as Ginger, Pepper, may however belong
to the class of nicknames conferred on dealers in cer-
tain commodities ; cf . Pescod, Peskett, from pease-cod.
Of this we have several examples which can be con-
firmed by foreign parallels, e.g. Garlick, found in
German as Knoblauch, 1 Straw, represented in German
by the cognate name Stroh, and Pease, which is
certified by Fr. Despois. We find Witepease in the
twelfth century.

Especially common are those names which deal
with the two staple foods of the country, bread and

1 The cognate Eng. clove-leek occurs as a surname in the Ramsey
Cartulary.

156 OF OCCUPATIVE NAMES

beer. In German we find several compounds of Brot,
bread, and one of the greatest of chess-players bore
the amazing name Zuckertort, sugar-cake. In French
we have such names as Painchaud, Painleve, Pain-
tendre —

"Eugene Aram was usher, in 1744, to the Rev. Mr. Pairiblanc, in
Piccadilly" (Bardsley).

Hence our Cakebread and Whitbread were probably

names given to bakers. Simnel is explained in the

same way, and Lambert Simnel is understood to have

been a baker's lad, but the name could equally well

be from Fr. Simonel, dim. of Simon. Wastall is found

in the Hundred Rolls as wastel, Old Fr. gastel (gdteau) .

Here also belongs Cracknell —

" Craquelin, a cracknell ; made of the yolks of egges, water,
and flower; and fashioned like a hollow trendle" (Cotgrave).

Goodbeer is explained by Bardsley as a perversion of
Godber (p. 72), which may be true, but the name is also
to be taken literally. We have Ger. Gutbier, and the
existence of Sourale in the Hundred Rolls and Sower-
butts at the present day justifies us in accepting both
Goodbeer and Goodale at their face- value. But Rice
is an imitative form of Welsh Rhys, Reece, and Salt,
when not derived from Salt in Stafford, is from Old
Fr. sault, 1 a wood, Lat. saltus. It is doubtful whether
the name Cheese is to be included here. Jan Kees, for
John Cornelius, said to have been a nickname for
a Hollander, may easily have reached the Eastern
counties. Bardsley's earliest instance for the name is
John Chese, who was living in Norfolk in 1273. But
still I find Furmage as a medieval surname. We also

1 This is common in place-names, and I should suggest, as a guess,
that Sacheverell is from the village of Sault-Chevreuil-du-Tronchet
(Manche).

NAMES FROM WARES 157

have the dealer in meat represented by the classical
example of Hogsflesh, with which we may compare
Mutton and Veal, two names which may be seen fairly
near each other in Hammersmith Road (but for these
see also p. 223), and I have known a German named
Kalbfleisch. Names of this kind would sometimes come
into existence through the practice of crying wares;
though if Mr. Rottenherring, who was a freeman of
York in 1332, obtained his in this way, he must have
deliberately ignored an ancient piece of wisdom.

CHAPTER XVI

A SPECIMEN PROBLEM

" Howe sayst thou, man ? am not I a joly rutter ? "

(Skelton, Magnyfycence, 1. 762.)

The fairly common name Rutter is a good example of
the difficulty of explaining a surname derived from a
trade or calling no longer practised. Even so careful
an authority as Bardsley has gone hopelessly astray
over this name. He says, " German ritter, a rider,
i.e. a trooper," and quotes from Halliwell, " rutter, a
rider, a trooper, from the German ; a name given to
mercenary soldiers engaged from Brabant, etc." Now
this statement is altogether opposed to chronology.
The name occurs as le roter, rotour, ruter in the Hundred .
Rolls of 1273, i.e. more than two centuries before any
German name for trooper could possibly have become
familiar in England. Any stray Mid. High Ger. Riter
would have been assimilated to the cognate Eng. Rider.
It is possible that some German Reuters have become
English Rutters in comparatively modern times, but
the German surname Reuter has nothing to do with
a trooper. It represents Mid. High Ger. riutcere, a
clearer of land, from the verb riuten (reuteri), cor-
responding to Low Ger. roden, and related to our royd,
a clearing (p. in). This word is apparently not con-
nected with our root, though it means to root out,

158

RUTTER 159

but ultimately belongs to a root ru which appears
in Lat. rutrum, a spade, rutabulum, a rake, etc.

There is another Ger. Renter, a trooper, which has
given the sixteenth-century Eng. rutter, but not as a
surname. The word appears in German about 1500,
i e. rather late for the surname period, and comes
from Du. ruiter, a mercenary trooper. The German
for trooper is Reiter, really the same word as Ritter, a
knight, the two forms having been differentiated in
meaning ; cf . Fr. cavalier, a trooper, and chevalier, a
knight. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
Ger. Reiter was confused with, and supplanted by, this
borrowed word Renter, which was taken to mean
rider, and we find the cavalry called Reuterei well
into the eighteenth century. As a matter of fact the
two words are quite unrelated, though the origin of
Du. ruiter is disputed.

The New English Dictionary gives, from the year
1506, rutter (var. ruter, ruiter), a cavalry soldier, especi-
ally German, from Du. ruiter, whence Ger. Renter, as
above. It connects the Dutch word with medieval
Lat. rutarius, i.e. ruptarius, which is also Kluge's 1 view.
But Franck s sees phonetic difficulties and prefers to
regard ruiter as belonging rather to ruiten, to uproot.
The application of the name up-rooter to a lawless
mercenary is not unnatural.

But whatever be the ultimate origin of this Dutch
and German military word, it is sufficiently obvious that
it cannot have given an English surname which is
already common in the thirteenth century. There is
a much earlier claimant in the field. The New English
Dictionary has roter (1297), var. roto'ur, rotor, and

1 Deutsches Etymologisches Worterbuch.

2 Etymologisch Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal.

160 A SPECIMEN PROBLEM

router (1379), a lawless person, robber, ruffian, from Old
Fr. rotter (routier), and also the form rutar, used by
Philemon Holland, who, in his translation of Camden's
Britannia (1610), says "That age called foraine and
willing souldiours rutars." The reference is to King
John's mercenaries, c. 1215. Fr. routier, a mercenary,
is usually derived from route, a band, Lat. rupta, a
piece broken off, a detachment. References to the
grandes routes, the great mercenary bands which over-
ran France in the fourteenth century, are common
in French history. But the word was popularly, and
naturally, connected withroute, Lat. (via) rupta, a high-
way, so that Godefroy l separates routier, a vagabond,
from routier, a bandit soldier. Cotgrave has —

" Routier, an old traveller, one that by much trotting up and
down is grown acquainted with most waies ; and hence, an old
beaten souldier ; one whom a long practise hath made experienced
in, or absolute master of, his profession ; and (in evill part) an old
crafty fox, notable beguiler, ordinary deceiver, subtill knave ; also,
a purse-taker, or a robber by the high way side."

It is impossible to determine the relative shares of
route, a band, and route, a highway, in this definition,
but there has probably been natural confusion between
two words, separate in meaning, though etymologically
identical. Fr. reitre, a German trooper, which repre-
sents Ger. Reiter or Reuter, appears in the sixteenth
century with practically the meaning of routier. In
fact un vieux reitre and un vieux routier are used in-
differently for an artful old dodger, an old soldier in
the bad sense. Victor Hugo couples the two words —

" Au-dedans, routiers, reitres,
Vont battant le pays et briilant la moisson."

(Ruy Bias, iii. 2.)

1 Dictionnaire de I'ancien Franqais,

RUTTER 161

Now our thirteenth-century rotors and ruters may
represent Old Fr. routier, and have been names applied
to a mercenary soldier or a vagabond. But this cannot
be considered certain. If we consult du Cange, 1 we
find, s.v. rumpere, " ruptarii, pro ruptuarii, quidam
prsedones sub xi saeculutn, ex rusticis . . . collecti ac
conflati," which suggests connection with " ruptuarius,
colonus qui agrum seu terrain rumpit, proscindit,
colit," i.e. that the ruptarii, also called rutarii, rutharii,
rotharii, rotarii, etc., were so named because they were
revolting peasants, i.e. men connected with the roture,
or breaking of the soil, from which we get roturier,
a plebeian. That would still connect our Rutters with
Lat. rumpere, but by a third road.

Finally, Old French has one more word which seems
to me quite as good a candidate as any of the others,
viz. roteur, a player on the rote, i.e. the fiddle used by
the medieval minstrels, Chaucer says of his Frere —

" Wel koude he synge and playen on a rote."

(A, 236.)

The word is possibly of Celtic origin (Welsh crwth) and
a doublet of the archaic crowd, or crowth, a fiddle.
Both rote and crowth are used by Spenser. Crowd is
perhaps not yet obsolete in dialect, and the fiddler
in Hudibras is called Crowdero. Thus Rutter may be
a doublet of Crowther. There may be other possible
etymologies for Rutter, but those discussed will suffice
to show that the origin of occupative names is not
always easily guessed.

1 Glossarium ad Scriptores media et inftmcB Latinitatis.

12

CHAPTER XVII

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

" In Southwerk at the Tabard as I lay,
Redy to wenden on my pilgrimage,
To Caunterbury with ful devout corage,
At nyght were come into that hostelrye
Wei nyne and twenty in a compaignye
Of sondry folk, by aventure y-falle
In felaweshipe, and pilgrimes were they alle.
That toward Caunterbury wolden ryde."

{Prologue, 1. 20.)

This famous band of wayfarers includes representatives

of all classes, save the highest and the lowest, just at

the period when our surnames were becoming fixed.

It seems natural to distinguish the following groups.

The leisured class is represented by the Knight (p. 145)

and his son the Squire, also found as Swire or Swyer,

Old Fr. escuyer (ecuyer), a shield-bearer (Lat. scutum),

with their attendant Yeoman, a name that originally

meant a small landowner and later a trusted attendant

of the warlike kind —

" And in his hand he baar a myghty bowe."

(A, 108.)

With these goes the Franklin (p. 145), who had been
Sherriff, i.e. shire-reeve. He is also described as a

Vavasour (p. 11) —

" Was nowher such a worthy vavasour " (A, 360.)

The professions are represented by the Nunn, her atten-

162

THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS 163

dant priests, whence the names Press, Prest, the Monk,
the Frere, or Fryer, " a wantowne and a merye," the
Clark of Oxenforde, the Sargent of the lawe, the Sum-
ner, i.e. summoner or apparitor, the doctor of physic,
i.e. the Leech or Leach —

" Make war breed peace ; make peace stint war ; make each
Prescribe to other, as each other's leech " 1

(Timon of Athens, v. 4) —

and the poor parson. Le surgien and le fisicien were
once common surnames, but the former has been
swallowed up by Sargent, and the latter seems to have
died out. The name Leach has been reinforced by the
dialect lache, a bog, whence also the compounds Black-
leach, Depledge. Loosely attached to the church is the
pardoner, with his wallet —

" Bret-ful of pardon, comen from Rome al hoot."

(A, 687.)

But he has not left us a surname, for the fairly common
Pardon, of French origin, is a dim. of Pardolf.

Commerce is represented by the Marchant, depicted
as a character of weight and dignity, and the humbler
trades and crafts by —

"An haberdasher, and a Carpenter,
A Webbe, a deyer (Dyer), and a tapiser."

(A, 361.)

To these may be added the Wife of Bath, whose com-
fortable means were drawn from the cloth trade, then
our staple industry.

From rural surroundings come the Miller and the
Plowman, as kindly a man as the poor parson his
brother, for —

1 The same word as the worm leech, from an Anglo-Saxon word
for healer.

164 THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

" He wolde threshe, and therto dyke and delve,
For Cristes sake, for every poure wight,
Withouten hire, if it lay in his myght."

(A, 536.)

The Miller is the same as the Meller or Mellor —

"Upon the whiche brook ther stant a. melle 1 ;
And this is verray sooth, that I yow tell."

(A, 3923.)

The oldest form of the name is Milner, Anglo-Sax.
myln, Lat. molina ; cf. Kilner from kiln, Lat. culina,
kitchen.

The official or servile class includes the manciple,
or buyer for a fraternity of templars, otherwise called
an achatour, whence Cator, Chaytor, Chater a (p. 33),
the Reeve, an estate steward, so crafty that —

"Ther nas baillif (p. 45), ne herde (p. 32), nor oother hyne (p. 35),
That he ne knew his sleighte and his covyne "

(A, 603) ;

and finally the Cook, or Coke (p. 12) —

" To boylle the chicknes and the marybones."

(A, 380.)

In a class by himself stands the grimmest figure of
all, the Shipman, of whom we are told —

" If that he f aught, and hadde the hyer hond,
By water he sente hem hoom to every lond."

(A, 399-)

The same occupation has given the name Marner,
for mariner, and Seaman, but the medieval forms of
the rare name Saylor show that it is from Fr. sailleur,

1 A Kentish form, used by Chaucer for the rime ; cf. pet for
pit (p. 127).

2 These may be also from escheatour, an official who has given
us the word cheat.

ECCLESIASTICAL NAMES 165

a dancer, an artist who also survives as Hopper and
Leaper —

" To one that leped at Chestre, 6s. Sd."

(Privy Purse Expenses of Henry VII, 1 1495.)

The pilgrims were accompanied by the host of the
Tabard Inn, whose occupation has given us the names
Inman and Hostler, Oastter, Old Fr. hosteller (hotelier),
now applied to the inn servant who looks after the
'osses. Another form is the modern-looking Hustler.
Distinct from these is Osier, Fr. oiseleur, a bird-catcher ;
cf. Burder and Fowler.

If we deal here with ecclesiastical names, as being
really nicknames (p. 147), that will leave the trader
and craftsman, the peasant, and the official or servile
class to be treated in separate chapters. Social, as
distinguished from occupative, surnames have already
been touched on, and the names, not very numerous,
connected with warfare have also been mentioned in
various connections.

Among ecclesiastical names Monk has the largest
number of variants. Its Anglo-French form is some-
times represented by Munn and Moon, while Money
is the oldest Fr. monie ; cf. Vicary from Old Fr. vicarie.
But the French names La Monnaie, de la Monnaie, are
local, from residence near the mint. The canon ap-
pears as Cannon, Channen, and Shannon, Fr. chanoine —

" With this chanoun I dwelt have seven yere "

(G, 720);

but Dean is generally local (p. 112) and Deacon is often
an imitative form of Dakin or Deakin, from David

1 He was usually more generous to the high arts, e.g. " To a.
Spaynarde that pleyed the fole, £2," " To the young damoysell
that daunceth, ^30." With which cf. " To Carter for writing of a
boke, js. 4d."

166 THE CANTERBURY PILGRIMS

(p. 57). Charter was used of a monk of the Charter-
house, a popular corruption of Chartreuse —

" With a company dyde I mete,
As ermytes, monkes, and freres,
Chanons, chartores . . ."

(Cock Lorelles Bote.)

Charter also comes from archaic Fr. chartier (char-
retier), a carter, and perhaps sometimes from Old
Fr. chartrier, " a jaylor ; also, a prisoner ' " (Cotg.),
which belongs to Lat. career, prison. Charters may
be from the French town Chartres, but is more
likely a perversion of Charterhouse, as Childers is of
the obsolete childer-house, orphanage.

Among lower orders of the church we have Lister*
a reader, Bennet, an exorcist, and Collet, aphetic for
acolyte. But each of these is susceptible of another
origin which is generally to be preferred. Chaflin
is of course for chaplain, Fr. chafelain. The legate
appears as Leggatt. Crosier or Crozier means cross-
bearer. At the funeral of Anne of Cleves (1557) the
mass was executed —

" By thabbott in pontificalibus wthis croysyer, deacon and
subdeacon."

The name may sometimes have arisen through the
crosier, or bishop's staff, being used as a shop-sign
(p. 135). Canter, Caunter is for chanter, and has an
apparent dim. Cantrell, but this name may be from
Old Fr. chanterel, chant-book, and have been acquired
in the same way as Porteous (p. 136). Sanger and Sang-
ster were not ecclesiastical Singers. Converse meant
a lay-brother employed as a drudge in a monastery.
Sacristan, the man in charge of the sacristy, from which

1 The sense development of these two words is curious.

2 Found in Late Latin as legista, from Lat. legere, to read.

PILGRIMS 167

we have Secretan, is contracted into Saxton and Sexton,
a name now usually associated with grave-digging and
bell-ringing, though the latter task once belonged to
the Knowler —

" Carilloneur, a chymer, or knowler of bells " (Cotgrave).

It is of course connected with knell, though the only
Kneller who has become famous was a German named
Kniller.

Marillier, probably a Huguenot name, is an Old Fr.
form of marguillier, a churchwarden, Lat. matricu-
larius. The hermit seems to have survived only in
the Huguenot Lermitte (I'hermite), though the name
of his dwelling is common (p. 130) ; but Anker, now
anchorite, is still found. Fals-Semblant says —

" Somtyme I am religious,
Now lyk ail anker in an hous."

(Romaunt of the Rose, 6348.)

While a Pilgrim acquired his name by a journey to
any shrine, a Palmer must originally have been to the
Holy Land, and a Romer to Rome. But the frequent
occurrence of Palmer suggests that it was often a
nickname for a pious fraud. We have a doublet of
Pilgrim in Pegram, though this may come from the
name Peregrine, the etymology being the same, viz.
Lat. peregrinus, a foreigner.

CHAPTER XVIII

TRADES AND CRAFTS

"What d'ye lack, noble sir? — What d'ye lack, beauteous
madam ? " (Fortunes of Nigel, ch. i.)

In the Middle Ages there was no great class of retail
dealers distinct from the craftsmen who fashioned
objects. The same man made and sold in almost every
case. There were of course general dealers, such as
the French Marchant or his English equivalent the
Chapman (p. 23), the Dutch form of which has given
us the Norfolk name Copeman. The Broker is now
generally absorbed by the local Brooker. There were
also the itinerant merchants/ of whom more anon;
but in the great majority of cases the craftsman
made and sold one article, and was, in fact, strictly
forbidden to wander outside his special line.
Fuller tells us that —

" England were but a fling,
Save for the crooked stick and the gray-goose-wing,"

and the importance of the bow and arrow is shown by
the number of surnames connected with their manu-
facture. We find the Bowyer, 1 Bower or Bowmaker,
who trimmed and shaped the wand of yew, the Fletcher

1 This is also one source of Boyer, but the very common French
surname Boyer means ox-herd.

168

ARCHERY 169

(p. 150), Arrowsmith, or Flower, who prepared the
arrow —

"His bo we he bente and sette therinne a flo 1 " (H, 264) —

and the Tipper, Stringer, and Horner, who attended
to smaller details, though the Tipper and Stringer
probably tipped and strung other things, and the Horner,
though he made the horn nocks of the long-bow, also
made horn cups and other objects. The extent to
which specialization was carried is shown by the trade
description of John Darke, longbow stringemaker, who
died in 1600. The Arblaster may have either made
or used the arblast or cross-bow, medieval Lat. arcur-
balista, bow-sling. His name has given the imitative
Alabaster. We also find the shortened Ballister and
Balestier, from which we have Bannister (p. 36). Or,
to take an example from comestibles, a Flanner
limited his activity to the making of flat cakes
called flans or flawns, from Old Fr. flaon {flan), a word
of Germanic origin, ultimately related to flat —

" He that is hanged in May will eat no flaunes in Midsummer."

(The Abbot, ch. xxxiii.)

Some names have become strangely restricted in
meaning, e.g. Mercer, now almost limited to silk, was
a name for a dealer in any kind of merchandise (Lat.
merx) ; in Old French it meant pedlar —

" Merrier, a. good pedler, or meane haberdasher of small
wares " (Cotgrave).

On the other hand Chandler, properly a candle-maker,
is now used in the compounds corn-chandler and
ship's chandler. Of all the -mongers the only common

1 The true English word for arrow, Anglo-Sax. fla.

170 TRADES AND CRAFTS

survival is Ironmonger or Iremonger, with the variant
Isemonger, from Mid. Eng. isen, iron.

The wool trade occupied a very large number of
workers and has given a good many surnames, includ-
ing Laner, Fr. laine, wool. The Shearer was distinct
from the Shearman or Sherman, the former operating
on the sheep and the latter on the nap of the cloth.
For Comber we also have the older Kempster, and pro-
bably Kimber, from the Mid. Eng. kemben, to comb,
which survives in " unkempt." The Walker, Fuller, and
Tucker all did very much the same work of trampling
the cloth. All three words are used in Wyclif 's Bible
in variant renderings of Mark ix. 3. Fuller is from
Fr. fouler, to trample, and Tucker from toquer, to
strike, related to " touch." Fuller is found in the south
and south-east, Tucker in the west, and Walker in the
north. A Dyer was also called Dyter, Dyster, and the
same trade is the origin of the Latin-looking Dexter
(p. 18). From Mid. Eng. Ulster, a dyer, a word of
Scandinavian origin, comes Lister, as in Lister Gate,
Nottingham. With these goes the W adman, who dealt
in, or grew, the dye-plant called woad ; cf. Flaxman.
A beater of flax was called Swingler —

" Fleyl, swyngyl, verga, tribulum " (Prompt. Paru.).

A Tozer teased the cloth with a teasel. In Mid. English
the verb is tcesen or tosen, so that the names Teaser and
Towser, sometimes given to bull-terriers, are doublets.
Seeker means sack-maker.

We have already noticed the predominance of
Taylor. This is the more remarkable when we con-
sider that the name has as rivals the native Seamer
and Shapster and the imported Parmenter, Old Fr.
parmentier, a maker of parements, now used chiefly

CLOTHIERS

171

of facings on clothes. But another, and more usual,
origin of Parmenter, Parminter, Parmiter, is parch-
menter, a very important medieval trade. The word
would correspond to a Lat. pergamentarius, which has
given also the German surname Berminter. Several old
German cities had a Permentergasse, i.e. parchment-
makers' street. A Pitcher made pilches, i.e. fur cloaks,
an early loan-word from Vulgar Lat. pellicia {pellis,
skin). Chaucer's version of —

" Till May is out, ne'er cast a clout "
is —

" After greet heet cometh colde ;
No man caste his pilche away."

Another name connected with clothes is Chaucer, Old
Fr. chaussier, a hosier (Lat. calceus, boot), while Admiral
Hozier's Ghost reminds us of the native word. The
oldest meaning of hose seems to have been gaiters. It
ascended in Tudor times to the dignity of breeches
(cf. trunk-hose), the meaning it has in modern German.
Now it has become a tradesman's euphemism for the
improper word stocking, a fact which led a friend of
the writer's, imperfectly acquainted with German, to
ask a gifted lady of that nationality if she were a
Blauhose. A Quitter quilled, i.e. gophered, ruffs.
A Chaloner or Chawner dealt in shalloon, Mid. Eng.
chalons, a material made at Chalons-sur-Marne —

" And in his owene chambre hem made a bed.
With sheetes and with chalons faire y-spred."

(A, 4I39-)

Ganter or Gaunter is Fr. gantier, glove-maker.

Some metal-workers have already been mentioned
in connection with Smith (p. 44), and elsewhere. The
French Fevre is found as Feaver. Fearon comes from
Old Fr. feron, smith, from ferir, to smite. Face le

172 TRADES AND CRAFTS

ferrun, i.e. Boniface (p. 34) the smith, lived in North-
ampton in the twelfth century. This is an example of
the French use of -on as an agential suffix. Another
example is Old Fr. charton, or charreton, a waggoner,
from the Norman form of which we have Carton. In
Scriven, from Old Fr. escrivain (ecrivain), we have an
isolated agential suffix. The English form is usually
lengthened to Scrivener. In Ferrier, for farrier, the
traditional spelling has prevailed over the pronuncia-
tion, but we have the latter in Farrar. These names
(Lat. ferrum, iron) are not related to Fearon (Lat. ferire,
to strike). Aguilar means needle-maker, Fr. aiguille,
but Pinner is more often official (p. 181). Cutler, Fr.
coutelier, Old Fr. coutel, knife, and Spooner go together,
but the fork is a modern fad. Poynter is another good
example of the specialization of medieval crafts :
the points were the metal tags by which the doublet
and hose were connected. Hence the play on words
when Falstaff is recounting his adventure with the
men in buckram—

Fal. " Their points being broken "

Poins. " Down fell their hose."

(1 Henry IV., ii, 4.)

Latimer, Latner sometimes means a worker in latten,
a mixed metal of which the etymological origin is un-
known. The Pardoner —

" Hadde a croys of latoun ful of stones " (A, 699).

For the change from -n to -m we may compare Lorimer
for Loriner, a bridle-maker, belonging ultimately to
Lat. lorum, " the reyne of a brydle " (Cooper). But
Latimer comes also from Latiner, a man skilled in Latin,
hence an interpreter. Sir John Mandeville tells us
that, on the way to Sinai —

" Men alleweys fynden Latyneres to go with hem in the contrees."

METAL WORKERS 173 <

The immortal Bowdler is usually said to take his
name from the art of puddling, or huddling, iron ore.
But, as this process is comparatively modern, it is more
likely that the name comes from the same verb in its
older meaning of making impervious to water by means
of clay.' Monier and Minter are both connected with
coining, the former through French and the latter from
Anglo-Saxon, both going back to Lat. moneta, 1 mint.
Conner, i.e. coiner, is now generally swallowed up by
the Irish Connor. Leadbitter is for Leadbeater. The
name Hamper is a contraction of hanapier, a maker of
hanaps, i.e. goblets. Fr. hanap is from Old High Ger.
hnapf {Napf), and shows the inability of French to
pronounce initial hn- without inserting a vowel : cf .
harangue from Old High Ger. hring. There is also a
Mid; Eng. nap, cup, representing the cognate Anglo-
Sax, hncep, so that the name Napper may sometimes
be a doublet of Hamper, though it is more probably
for Napier (p. 6) or Knapper (p. 107). The common
noun hamper is from hanapier in a sense something like
plate-basket. With metal-workers we may also put
Poyser, scale-maker (poise), and Furber or Frobisher,
i.e. furbisher of armour, etc. Two occupative names
of Celtic origin are Gow, a smith, as in The Fair Maid
of Perth, and Caird, a tinker —

" The fellow had been originally a tinker or caird."

(Heart of Midlothian, ch. xlix.)

A few more names, which fall into no particular
category, may conclude the chapter. Hillyer or
Hellier is an old name for a Thacker, or thatcher, of
which we have the Dutch form in Dekker. It comes
from Mid. Eng. helen, to cover up. In Hittard, Hill-

1 On the curiously accidental history of this word see the Ro-
mance of Words, ch. x.

174 TRADES AND CRAFTS

yard we sometimes have the same name (cf . the vulgar
scholar d), but these are usually local (p. 124). Hellier
also meant tiler, for the famous Wat is described
as tiler, tegheler, and hellier. An Ashbumer prepared
wood-ash for the Bloomer (p. 153), and perhaps also for
the Glaisher, or glass-maker, and Asher is best explained
in the same way, for we do not, I think, add -er
to tree-names. Apparent exceptions can be easily
accounted for, e.g. Elmer is Anglo-Sax. iElfmaer, and
Beecher is Anglo-Fr. bechur, digger (Fr. beche, spade).
Neither Pitman nor Collier have their modern meaning
of coal-miner. Pitman is local, of the same class as
Bridgeman, Pullman, etc., and Collier meant a charcoal-
burner, as in the famous ballad of Rauf Colyear. Not
much coal was dug in the Middle Ages. Even in 1610
Camden speaks with disapproval, in his Britannia, of
the inhabitants of Sherwood Forest who, with plenty
of wood around them, persist in digging up " stinking
pit-cole."

Croker is for Crocker, a maker of crocks or pitchers.
The Miller's guests only retired to bed —

" Whan that dronken al was in the crowke " (A, 4158).

The spelling has affected the pronunciation, as in
Sloper and Smoker (p. 41). A Benner made hampers,
Fr. benne. Tinker is sometimes found as the fre-
quentative Tinkler, the man whose approach is
heralded by the clatter of metal utensils —

"My bonny lass, I work on brass,
A tinkler is my station."

(Burns, Jolly Beggars, Air 6.)

The maker of saddle-trees was called Fewster, from
Old Fr. fust (Jut), Lat. fustis. This has sometimes

SURNOMINAL SNOBBISHNESS 175

given Foster, but the latter is more often for Forster,
i.e. Forester —

"An horn lie bar, the bawdryk was of grene,
A forster was he soothly as I gesse."

(A, 116.)

The saddler himself was often called by his French
name sellier, whence Sellar, but both this and Sellars
are also local, at the cellars (p. 29). Pargeter means
dauber, plasterer, from Old Fr. parjeter, to throw over.
A Straker made the strakes, or tires, of wheels. A
Stanger made stangs, i.e. poles, shafts, etc.

Finally the fine arts are represented by Limmer,
for limner, a painter, an aphetic form of illuminer, and
Tickner, a Dutch name, from tekener, draughtsman,
cognate with Eng. token, while the art of self-defence
has given us the name Scrimgeoure, with a number of
corruptions, including the local-looking Skrimshire.
It is related to scrimmage and skirmish, and ulti-
mately to Gr. schirmen, to fence, lit. to protect. The
name was applied to a professional sword-player —

" Qe nul teigne escole de eskermerye ne de bokeler deins la citee."

(Liber Albus.)

A particularly idiotic form of snobbishness has
sometimes led people to advance strange theories as
to the origin of their names. Thus Turner has been
explained as from la tour noire. Dr. Brewer, in his
Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1 apparently desirous of
dissociating himself from malt liquor, observes that —

" Very few ancient names are the names of trades. ... A few
examples of a more scientific derivation will suffice for a hint : —

Brewer. This name, which exists in France as Bruhiere and
Brugere, is not derived from the Saxon briwan (to brew), but the
French bruyire (heath), and is about tantamount to the German

1 Thirteenth edition, revised and corrected.

176 TRADES AND CRAFTS

Plantagenet (broom plant). Miller is the old Norse melia, our mill
and maul, and means a mauler or fighter.

Ringer is the Anglo-Saxon hring-gar (the mailed warrior).

Tanner, German Thanger, Old German Dane-gaud, is the Dane-
Goth.

This list might easily be extended."

There is of course no reason why such a list should
not be indefinitely extended, but it is already quite
long enough to make the reader feel dizzy. The fact is
that there is no getting away from a surname of this
class, and the bearer must try to look on the
brighter side of the tragedy. Brewer is occasionally
an accommodated form of the French name Bruyere or
Labruyere, but is usually derived from an occupation
which is the high-road to the House of Lords. The
ancestor of any modern Barber may, like Salvation
Yeo's father, have " exercised the mystery of a barber-
surgeon," which is getting near the learned professions,
A Pottinger (see p. 155) looked after the soups, Fr.
fotage, as a Saucer did after the sauces, but the name
also represents Pothecary (apothecary), which gave in
early Scottish the aphetic forms foticar, fotigar —

n 1

1 Pardon me,' said he, ' I am but a poor pottingar. Neverthe-
less, I have been bred in Paris and learnt my humanities and my
cursus medendi'" (Fair Maid of Perth, ch. vii.).

CHAPTER XIX

HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

" Jacque, il me faut troubler ton somme ;
Dans le village, un gros huissier
Rode et court, suivi du messier.
C'est pour l'impot, las! mon pauvre homme.
Leve-toi, Jacque, leve-toi :
Voici venir l'huissier du roi."

Beranger.

General terms for what we now usually call a farmer
are preserved in the surnames Bond (p. 146), whence the
compound Husband, used both for the goodman of
the house and in the modern sense, and Tillman.
The labouring man was Day, from the same root as
Ger. dienen, to serve. It persists in ' ' dairy ' ' and in the
compound Faraday, a travelling, or wayfaring, labourer.
A similar meaning is contained in the names Swain,
Hind, for earlier Hine (p. 35), Tasker, Wager, and
Man. The mower has given us the names Mather (cf.
aftermath), and Mawer, the latter usually swallowed
up by Moore, while Fenner is sometimes for Old
Fr. feneur, haymaker (Lat. fcenum, hay). For mower
we also find the latinized messor, whence Messer.
Whether the Ridler l and the Sivier made, or used,
riddles and sieves can hardly be decided. With the

1 Riddle is the usual word for sieve in the Midlands. Hence the
phrase " riddled with holes, or wounds."

13 '77

178 HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

Wenman, who drove the wain, we may mention the
Leader or Loader. The verbs to lead and to load are
etymologically the same, and in the Midlands people
talk of leading, i.e. carting, coal. But these names
could also come from residence near an artificial water-
course (p. 129). Beecher has already been explained
(p. 174), and Showier is formed in the same way from
dialect showl, a shovel —

" ' I,' said the owl,
' With my spade and showl.' "

To the variants of the Miller (p. 225) may be added
Mulliner, from Old French. Tedder means a man who
teds, i.e. spreads, hay, the origin of the word being
S candinavian —

" I teede hey, I tourne it afore it is made in cockes, je fene."

(Palsgrave. )

But the greater number of surnames drawn from
rural occupations are connected with the care of
animals. We find names of this class in three forms,
exemplified by Coltman, Goater, Shepherd, and it seems
likely that the endings -er and -erd have sometimes
been interchanged, e.g. that Goater may stand for
goat-herd, Calver for calf-herd, and Nutter for northern
nowt-herd, representing the otherwise absent neat-
herd. The compounds of herd include Bullard, Cal-
vert, Coltard, Coward, for cow-herd, not of course
to be confused with the common noun coward, Fr.
couard, a derivative of Lat. cauda, tail, Ewart, ewe-
herd, but also a Norman spelling of Edward, Geldard,
Goddard, sometimes for goat-herd, Hoggart, often con-
fused with the local Hogarth (p. 124), Seward, for sow-
herd, or for the historic Siward, Stobart, dialect stob, a

BUMBLEDOM 179

bull, Stodart, Mid. Eng. stot, meaning both a bullock
and a nag. Chaucer tells us that —

" This reve sat upon a ful good stot " (A, 615).

Stoddart is naturally confused with Studdart, stud-
herd, stud being cognate with Ger. Stute, mare. We
also have Swinnert, and lastly Weatherhead, sometimes
a perversion of wether-herd, though usually a
nickname, sheep's head. The man in charge of the
tups, or rams, was called Tupman or Tapper, the
latter standing sometimes for tup-herd, just as we
have the imitative Stutter for Stodart or Studdart.
We have also Tripper from trip, a dialect word for
flock, probably related to troop. Another general
term for a herdsman was Looker, whence Luker.

I have headed this chapter " Hodge and his Friends,"
but as a matter of strict truth he had none, except the
" poure Persone," the most radiant figure in Chaucer's
pageant. But his enemies were innumerable. Be-
ranger's lines impress one less than the uncouth
"Song of the Husbandman" (temp. Edward I.),
in which we find the woes of poor Hodge incorporated
in the persons of the hayward, the bailif, the wodeward,
the budel and his cachereles (catchpoles) —

" For ever the furthe peni mot (must) to the kynge."

The bailiff has already been mentioned (p. 45). The
budel, or beadle, has given us several surnames. We
have the word in two forms, from Anglo-Sax. bytel,
belonging to the verb to bid, whence the names Biddle
and Buddie, and from Old Fr. bedel (bedeau), whence
Beadle and its variants. The animal is probably
extinct under his original name, but modern democracy
is doing its best to provide him with an army of

180 HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

successors. We find le cacherel strangely perverted into
le cathercl, whence Catherall, Cattrall.

Names in -ward are rather numerous, and, as they
mostly come from the titles of rural officials and are
often confused with compounds of -herd, they are
all put together here. The simple Ward, cognate
with Fr. garde, is one of our commonest surnames.
Like its derivative Warden it had a very wide
range of meanings. The antiquity of the office of
church-warden is shown by the existence of the sur-
name Churchward. Sometimes the surname comes
from the abstract or local sense, de la warde. As
the original -weard occurs very frequently in Anglo-
Saxon personal names, it is not always possible to say
whether a surname is essentially occupative or not,
e.g. whether Durward'is rather door-ward or for Anglo-
Sax. Deorweard. It is certain that Howard is both
for Harward (Hereward), later Haward, and for the
official Hayward, the latter source accounting for most
of the Howards outside the ducal family.

'Owing to the loss of w- in the second part of a word
(see p. 39), -ward and -herd often fall together, e.g.
Millard for Milward, and Woodard found in Mid. Eng.
as both wode-ward and wode-hird. Hayward belongs to
hay, hedge, enclosure (p. 124), from which we also get
Hayman. The same functionary has given the name
Haybittle, a compound of beadle. Burward and Burrard
no doubt represent the once familiar office of bear-ward;
cf. Berman. I had a schoolfellow called Lateward,
apparently the man in charge of the lade or leet (p. 129).
Medward is for mead-ward. The name Stewart or
Stuart became royal with Walter the Steward of Scot-
land, who married Marjorie Bruce in 1315. It stands
for sty-ward, where sty means pen, not necessarily

ITINERANT MERCHANTS 181

limited to pigs. Like most official titles, it has had its
ups and downs, with the result that its present meaning
ranges from a high officer of the crown to the sympa-
thetic concomitant of a rough crossing.

The Reeve, Anglo-Sax. ge-refa, was in Chaucer a kind
of land agent, but the name was also applied to local
officials, as in port-reeve, shire-reeve. It is the same
as Grieve, also originally official, but used in Scotland
of a land steward —

" He has got a ploughman from Scotland who acts as grieve."

(Scott, Diary, 1814.)

This is one source of the names Graves and Greaves.
The name Woodruff or Woodroffe is too common to
be referred to the plant woodruff, and the fact that the
male and female of a species of sand-piper are called
the ruff and reeve suggests that Woodrw^ may have
some relation to -wood-reeve. It is at any rate a curious
coincidence that the German name for the plant is
Waldmeister, wood-master. Another official surname
especially connected with country life is Finder, also
found as Pinner, Pender, Penner, Ponder and Poynder,
the man in charge of the pound or pinfold ; cf. Parker,
the custodian of a park, of which the Palliser or
Pallister made the palings.

The itinerant dealer was usually called by a name
suggesting the pack which he carried. Thus Badger,
Kidder, Kiddier, Pedder, now pedlar, are from bag, kid,
related to kit, and the obsolete fed, basket ; cf . Leaper,
p. 152. The badger, who dealt especially in corn, was
unpopular with the rural population, and it is possible
that his name was given to the stealthy animal formerly
called the bawson (p. 8, n.), brock or gray (p. 225).
To these may be added Cremer, Cramer, a huckster

182 HODGE AND HIS FRIENDS

with a stall in the market, but this surname is some-
times of modern introduction, from its German cognate
Kramer, now generally used for a grocer. Packman,
Pakeman, and Paxman belong more probably to the
font-name Pack (p. 89), which also appears in Paxon,
Pack's son, and the local Paxton.

The name Hawker does not belong to this group.
Nowadays a hawker is a pedlar, and it has been
assumed, without sufficient evidence, that the word
is of the same origin as huckster. The Mid. Eng. le
haueker or hanker e (1273) is quite plainly connected
with hawk, and the name may have been applied
either to a Falconer, Faulkner, or to a dealer in
hawks. As we know that itinerant vendors of hawks
travelled from castle to castle, it is quite possible
that our modern hawker is an extended use of the
same name. Nor is the name Coster to be referred to
costermonger, originally a dealer in costards, i.e. apples.
It is sometimes for Mid. Eng. costard (cf. such names as
Cherry and Plumb), but also represents Port, da Costa
and Ger. Kbster, both of which are found in early lists
of Protestant refugees.

J agger, whence Jaggard, was a north-country name
for a man who worked draught-horses for hire. Mr.
Hardy's novel Under the Greenwood Tree opens with
" the Tranter's party." A carrier is still a tranter in
Wessex. In Medieval Latin he was called travetarius,
a word apparently connected with Lat. transvehere, to
transport.

CHAPTER XX

OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC

" Big fleas have little fleas
Upon their backs to bite 'em ;
Little fleas have smaller fleas,
And so ad infinitum."

Anon.

It is a well-known fact that official nomenclature
largely reflects the simple housekeeping of early times,
and that many titles, now of great dignity, were origin-
ally associated with rather lowly duties. We have
seen an example in Stewart. Another is Chamberlain.
Hence surnames drawn from this class are susceptible
of very varied interpretation. A Chancellor was origin-
ally a man in charge of a chancel, or grating, Lat.
cancelli. In Mid. Eng. it is usually glossed scriba,
while it is now limited to very high judicial or political
office. Bailey, as we have seen (p. 45), has also a wide
range of meanings, the ground idea being that of
care-taker. Cotgrave explains Old Fr. mareschal
(marechal) as —

" A Marshall of a kingdome, or of a camp (an honourable place) ;
also, a blacksmith ; also, a, farrier, horse-leech, or horse-smith ;
also, a harbinger," 1

which gives a considerable choice of origins to any
modern Marshall or Maskell. Another very vague term
is sergeant, whence our Sargent. Its oldest meaning is

1 I.e. a quartermaster. See Romance of Words, ch. vii.
183

184 OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC

servant, Lat. semiem, servient-. Cotgrave defines

sergent as —

" A sergeant, officer, catchpole, pursuyvant, apparitor ; also (in
Old Fr.) a footman, or souldier that serves on foot."

Probably catchpole was the commonest meaning —
" Sargeauntes , katche pollys, and somners " (Cocke Lorelles Bote).

The administration of justice occupied a horde of
officials, from the Justice down to the Catchpole.
The official title Judge is rarely found, and this surname
is usually from the female name Judge, which, like
Jug, was used for Judith, and later for Jane —

" Jannette, Judge, Jennie ; a woman's name " (Cotgrave).

The names Judson and Juxon sometimes belong to
these. Catchpole has nothing to do with poles or
polls. It is a Picard cache-poule (chasse-poule), col-
lector of poultry in default of money. Another name
for judge was Dempster, the pronouncer of doom, a
title which still exists in the Isle of Man. We also find
Deemer —

" Demar, judicator" (Prompt. Parv.).

Mayor is a learned spelling of Mair, Fr. maire, Lat.
major, but Major, which looks like its latinized form,
is imitative for the Old French personal name Mauger.
Bishop Mauger of Worcester pronounced the interdict
in 1208, and the surname still exists. Gaylor, Galer,
is the Norman pronunciation of gaoler —

" And Palamon, this woful prisoner,
As was his wone, bi leve of his gayler,
Was risen" (A, 1064).

Usher is Fr. huissier, door-keeper, Fr. huts, door,
Lat. ostium. I conjecture that Lusher is the French

THE HOUSEHOLD 185

name Lhuissier, and that Lush is local, for Old Fr.
le huis ; cf. Laporte. Wait, corruptly Weight, now
used only of a Christmas minstrel, was once a watch-
man. It is a dialect form of Old Fr. gaite, cognate
with watch. The older sense survives in the expres-
sion " to lie in wait." Gate is the same name, when
not local (p. 124). The Todhunter, or fox-hunter
(p. 225), was a parish official whose duty was to ex-
terminate the animal now so carefully preserved.
Warner is for Warrener. The Grosvenor (gros veneur),
great hunter, was a royal servant. Bannerman is
found latinized as Penninger (p. 155). Herald may be
official or from Harold (p. 69), the derivation being
in any case the same. Toller means a collector of tolls.
Cocke Lorelle speaks of these officials as " false
Towlers." Connected with administration is the name
Mainprice, taken by hand, used both for a surety
and a man out on bail —

" Maynprysyd, or memprysyd, manucaptus, fideijussus"

(Prompt. Pan.) ;

and Shurety also exists.

The individtial bigwig had a very large retinue, the
members of which appear to have held very strongly
to the theory of one man, one job. The Nurse, or
Norris, Fr. nourrice, was apparently debarred from
rocking the cradle. This was the duty of the rocker —

" To the novice and rokker of the same lord, 25s. Sd."

(Household Accounts of Elizabeth of York, March, 1503),

from whom Mr. Roker, chief turnkey at the Fleet in
Mr. Pickwick's time, was descended. The Cook was
assisted by the B aster and Raster, or turnspit. This is
from Old Fr. hastille, spit, dim. of Lat. hasta, spear.
The Chandler was a servant as well as a manufacturer.

186 OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC

A Trotter and a Massinger, i.e. messenger, were perhaps
much the same thing. Wardroper is of course wardrobe
keeper, but Chaucer uses wardrope (B. 1762) in the
sense which Fr. garde-robe now usually has. The
Lavender, Launder or Lander saw to the washing.
Napier, from Fr. nappe, cloth, meant the servant
who looked after the napery. The martial sound with
which this distinguished name strikes a modern ear is
due to historical association, assisted, as I have some-
where read, by its riming with rapier ! The water-
supply was in charge of the Ewer.

The provisioning of the great house was the work of
the Lardner, Fr. lard, bacon, the Panter, or Pantler,
who was, at least etymologically, responsible for bread,
and the Cator (p. 33) and Spencer (p. 33), whose names,
though of opposite meaning, buyer and spender, come
to very much the same thing. Spence is still the north-
country word for pantry, and is used by Tennyson in
the sense of refectory —

" Bluff Harry broke into the spence
And turn'd the cowls adrift."

(The Talking Oak, 1. 47.)

Purser, now used in connection with ships only, was
also a medieval form of bursar, and every castle and
monastery had its almoner, now Amner. Here also
belongs Carver. In Iver Church (Bucks) is a tablet to
Lady Mary Salter with a poetic tribute to her husband —

" Full forty years a carver to two kings."

As the importance of the horse led to the social eleva-
tion of the marshal and constable (p. 45), so the
hengstman, now henchman, became his master's right-
hand man. The first element is Anglo-Sax. hengest,
stallion, and its most usual surnominal forms are Hens-

THE HOUSEHOLD 187

man and Hinxman. Historians now regard Hengist
and Horsa, stallion and mare, as nicknames assumed
by Jutish braves on the war-path. Sumpter, Old Fr.
sommetier, from somme, burden, was used both of a
packhorse and its driver, its interpretation in King
Lear being a matter of dispute —

" Return with her ?
Persuade me rather to be slave and sumpter
To this detested groom" (Lear, ii, 4).

As a surname it probably means the driver, Medieval
Lat. sumetarius.

Among those who ministered to the great man's
pleasures we must probably reckon Spelman, Speller,
Spillman, Spiller, from Mid. Eng. spel, a speech,
narrative —

"Now holde your mouth, par charitee,
Bothe knyght and lady free,
And herkneth to my spelle" (B, 2081).

The cognate Spielmann, lit. Player, was usedin Medieval
German of a wandering minstrel.

The poet is now Rymer or Rimmer, while Trover,
Fr. trouvere, a poet, minstrel, lit. finder, has been
absorbed by Troisier, for Thrower, a name connected
with weaving. Even the jester has come down to
us as Patch, a name given regularly to this member
of the household in allusion to his motley attire.
Shylock applies it to Launcelot —

" The patch is kind enough ; but a huge feeder."

(Merchant of Venice, ii. 5.)

But the name has another origin (p. 89). Butter and
Cocker are names taken from the fine old English
sports of bull-baiting and cock-fighting.
Two very humble members of the parasitic class

188 OFFICIAL AND DOMESTIC

have given the names Bidder and Maunder, both
meaning beggar. The first comes from Mid. Eng.
bidden, to ask. Piers Plowman speaks of " bidderes
and beggers." Maunder is perhaps connected with
Old Fr. quemander —

" Quemander, or caimander , to beg ; or goe a begging ; to beg
from doore to doore " (Cotgrave),

but it may mean a maker of maunds, i.e. baskets.
A Beadman spent his time in praying for his bene-
factor. A medieval underling writing to his superior
often signs himself " your servant and bedesman."

CHAPTER XXI

OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

" Here is Wyll Wyly the myl pecker,
And Patrick Pevysshe heerbeter,
With lusty Hary Hangeman,
Nexte house to Robyn Renawaye ;
Also Hycke Crokenec the rope maker,
And Steven Mesyllmouthe muskyll taker."

(Cocke Lovelies Bote. 1 )

Every family name is etymologically a nickname, i.e.
an eke-name, intended to give that auxiliary informa-
tion which helps in identification. But writers on
surnames have generally made a special class of those
epithets which were originally conferred on the bearer
in connection with some characteristic feature, phy-
sical or moral, or some adjunct, often of the most
trifling description, with which his personality was
associated. Of nicknames, as of other things, it may
be said that there is nothing new under the sun.
Ovidius Naso might have received his as a schoolboy,
and Moss cum naso, whom we find in Suffolk in 1184,
lives on as " Nosey Moss " in Whitechapel. Some of
our nicknames occur as personal names in Anglo-
Saxon times (p. 71), but as surnames they are seldom
to be traced back to that period, for the simple reason

1 This humorous poem, inspired by Sebastian Brandt's Narren-
schiff, known in England in Barclay's translation, was printed
early in the reign of Henry VIII. It contains the fullest list we have
of old trade-names.

r8o

igo OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

that such names were not hereditary. An Anglo-
Saxon might be named Wulf, but his son would bear
another name, while our modern Wolfe does not usually
go farther back than some Ranulf le wolf of the thir-
teenth or fourteenth century. This is of course stating
the case broadly, because the personal name Wolf
also persisted and became in some cases a surname.
In this and the following chapters I do not generally
attempt to distinguish between such double origins.

Nicknames are formed in very many ways, but the
two largest classes are sobriquets taken from the
names of animals, e.g. Hogg, or from adjectives, either
alone or accompanied by a noun, e.g. Dear, Goodfellow.
Each of these classes requires a chapter to itself, while
here we may deal with the smaller groups.

Some writers have attempted to explain all apparent
nicknames as popular perversions of surnames belong-
ing to the other three classes. As the reader will
already have noticed, such perversions are extremely
common, but it is a mistake to try to account for
obvious nicknames in this way. Any of us who retain
a vivid recollection of early days can call to mind
nicknames of the most fantastic kind, and in some
cases of the most apparently impossible formation,
which stuck to their possessors all through school-life.
A very simple test for the genuineness of a nickname
is a comparison with other languages. Camden says
that Drinkwater is a corruption of Derwentwater. The
incorrectness of this guess is shown by the existence
as surnames of Fr. Boileau, It. Bevilacqua, and Ger.
Trinkwasser. It is in fact a perfectly natural nick-
name for a medieval eccentric, the more normal
attitude being represented by Roger Beyvin (boi-vin),
who died in London in 1277.

FOREIGN NICKNAMES 191

Corresponding to our Goodday, we find Ger. Gutentag
and Fr. Bonjour. The latter has been explained as
from a popular form of George, but the English and
German names show that the explanation is unneces-
sary. With Dry we may compare Fr. Lesec and
Ger. Durr, with Garlick Ger. Knoblauch (p. 155), and
with Shakespeare Ger. Schiittespeer. Luck is both for
Luke and Luick (Liege, p. 100), but Rosa Bonheur
and the composer Glilck certify it also as a nickname.
Merryweather is Fr. Bontemps and Littleboy appears
in the Paris Directory as Petitgas, gas being the same
as gars, the old nominative of garcon —

" Gars, a. lad, boy, stripling, youth, yonker " (Cotgrave).

Bardsley explains Twentyman as an imitative corrup-
tion of twinter-man, the man in charge of the twinters,
two-year-old colts. This may be so, but there is a
German confectioner in Hampstead called Zwanziger,
and there are Parisians named Vingtain. Lover is
confirmed by the French surnames Amant and La-
moureux, and Wellbeloved by Bienaime. Allways may
be the literal equivalent of the French name Partout.
On the other hand, the name Praisegod Barebones has
been wrongly fixed on an individual of French descent
named Barbon, from bar be, beard.

It may seem strange that the nickname, conferred
essentially on the individual, and often of a very
offensive character, should have persisted and bepome
hereditary. But schoolboys know that, in the case of
unpleasant nicknames, the more you try to pull it off,
the more it sticks the faster. Malapert and Lehideux
are still well represented in" the Paris Directory. Many
objectionable nicknames have, however, disappeared,
or have been so modified as to become inoffensive.

t 9 2 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

Sometimes such disappearance has resulted from the
depreciation in the meaning of a word, e.g. le lewd, the
layman, the unlettered, was once as common as its
opposite le learned, whence the name Lamed. But
many uncomplimentary names are no longer objected
to because their owners do not know their earlier
meanings. A famous hymn-writer of the eighteenth
century bore all unconsciously a surname that would
almost have made Rabelais blush. Drinkdregs,
Drunkard, Sourale, Sparewater, Sweatinbed, etc. have
gone, but we still have Lush —

" Falourdin, a luske, lowt, lurden, a lubberlie sloven, heavie sot,
lumpish hoydoa " (Cotgrave) —

and many other names which can hardly have gratified
their original possessors.

A very interesting group of surnames consists of
those which indicate degrees of kinship or have to do
with the relations existing between individuals. We
find both Master and Mann, united in Masterman,
meaning the man in the service of one locally known
as the master. With this we may compare Ladyman,
Priestman, etc. But Mann is often local, from Le Mans,
the capital of Maine. In some cases such names are
usually found with the patronymic -s, e.g. Masters,
Fellows, while in others this is regularly absent, e.g.
Guest, Friend. The latter name is sometimes a corrup-
tion of Mid. Eng. fremed, stranger, cognate with Ger.
fremd, so that opposite terms, which we find regularly
contrasted in Mid. Eng. " frend and fremed," have
become absorbed in one surname. The frequent
occurrence of Fellows is due to its being sometimes for
the local Fallows. From Mid. Eng. fere, a companion,
connected with faren, to travel, we get Littlefair and

KINSHIP 193

Playfair. In Wyclif's Bible we read that Jephthah's
daughter —

" Whanne sche hadde go with hir felowis and pleiferis, sche
biwept hir maydynhed in the hillis " (Judges xi. 38).

Springett is for springald, and Arlett is Mid. Eng.
harlot, fellow, rascal, a word which has changed its
gender and meaning —

" He was a. gentil harlot and a kynde,
A betre felawe sholde men noght fynde."

(A, 647.)

In surnames taken from words indicating family re-
lationship we come across some survivals of terms no
longer used, or occurring only in rustic dialect. The
Mid. Eng. erne, uncle, cognate with Ger. Oheim, has
given Eames. In Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde,
the heroine addresses Pandarus as " uncle dere " and
" uncle mine," but also uses the older word —

" ' In good feith, em,' quod she, ' that liketh me ' "(ii. 162) ;

and the word is used more than once by Scott —

" Didna his erne die . . . wi' the name of the Bluidy Mackenzie ? "

(Heart of Midlothian, ch. xii.)

It is also one of the sources of Empson, which thus cor-
responds to Cousins or Cozens. In Neame we have a
prosthetic n- due to the frequent occurrence of mit,
erne (cf. the Shakespearean nuncle, Lear, i. 4). The
names derived from cousin have been reinforced bj
those from Cuss, i.e. Constant or Constance (p. 95)
Thus Cussens is from the Mid. Eng. dim. Cussin.
Anglo-Sax. nefa, whence Mid. Eng. neve, 1 neave, ii
cognate with, but not derived from, Lat. nepos. Thi:

1 In all books on surnames that I have come across this is re
ferred to Old Fr. le neve. There is no such word in Old French
which has nom. niis, ace. neveu.
IA

194 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

is now replaced as a common noun by the French
word nephew, but it survives in the surname Neave.
It also meant in Mid. English a prodigal or parasite,
as did also Lat. nepos —

" Neve, neverthryfte, or wastowre " {Prompt. Pan.).

It is likely that Nevison and Nevinson are sometimes
derivatives of this word ; cf . Widdowson and Empson.
Child was sometimes used in the special sense of
youth of gentle blood, or young knight ; cf . Childe
Harold and Childe Rowland {Lear, iii. 4) . But the more
general meaning may be assumed in its compounds,
of which the most interesting is Leifchild, love-child,
but without the unhappy sense which we now give
to the term. The corresponding Faunt (p. 146) is now
rare. Another word, now only used in dialect or by
affectation, is bairn, the chief source of the very
common surname Barnes ; cf . Fairbaim and Goodbaim,
often perverted to Fairburn, Goodbum, Goodban. Barn-
father is about equivalent to Lat. paterfamilias, but
Pennefather is an old nickname for a miser —

" Caqueduc, a niggard, micher, miser, scrape-good, pinch-penny,
penny -father ; a covetous and greedy wretch " (Cotgrave).

The name Bastard was once considered no disgrace if
the dishonour came from a noble source, and several
great medieval warriors bore this sobriquet. With
this we may compare Leman or Lemon, Mid. Eng.
leof-man, dear man, beloved, and Paramor, Fr. par
amour, an example of an adverbial phrase that has
become a noun. This expression, used of lawful love
in Old French, in the stock phrase " aimer une belle
dame par amour," had already an evil meaning by
Chaucer's time —

"My fourthe housbonde was a revelour,
This is to seyn, he hadde a paramour" (D, 453).

KINSHIP 105

With these names we may put Drewry or Drury,
sweetheart, from the Old French abstract druerie, oi
Germanic origin and cognate with true —

" For certeynly no such beeste
To be loved is not worthy,
Or bere the name of druerie."

(Romaunt of the Rose, 5062.)

Suckling is a nickname applied to a helpless person ;
cf. Littlechild and "milksop," which "still thrives in
the United States as Mellsop " (Bardsley). The heir
survives as Ayre and Eyre. Batchelor, the origin oi
which is one of the etymological problems yet un-
solved, had in Old French and Mid. English also
the meaning of young warrior or squire. Chaucer's
Squier is described as —

"A lovyere and a lusty bacheler" (A, 80).

May, maiden, whence Mildmay, is used by Chaucer
for the Holy Virgin —

"Now, lady bright, to whom alle woful cryen,
Thow glorie of wommanhede, thow faire may,
Thow haven of refut, brighte sterre of day" (B, 850).

This is the same word as Mid. Eng. mcei, relative, cog-
nate with maid and Gaelic Mac- (p. 66). It survives
in the Nottingham name Watmough and perhaps in
Hickmott —

"Mow, housbandys sister or syster in law " {Prompt. Parv.).

I imagine that William echemannesmai, who owed the
Treasury a mark in 1182, was one of the sponging
fraternity.

Virgoe, a latinization of Virgin, is almost certainly a
shop-sign. Rigmaiden, explained by Lower as "a
romping girl," is local, from a place in Westmorland
Richard de Riggemayden was living in Lancashire ir

196 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

1307. With this group of names we may put Gossip,
originally a god-parent, lit. related in God, Mid. Eng.
sib, kin.

With names like Farebrother, Goodfettow, we may
compare some of French origin such as Bonser (bon
sire), Bonamy, and Bellamy —

"Thou beel amy, thou pardoner, he sayde,
Telle us som myrth, or japes, right anon."

(B, 318.)

Beldam (belle dame), originally a complimentary name
for grandmother, or grandam, has become uncompli-
mentary in meaning —

First Witch. " Why, how now, Hecate ! you look angerly."
Hecate. "Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
Saucy and overbold ? " (Macbeth, iii. 5).

From the corresponding Old Fr. bel-sire, beau-sire, we
have Bewsher, Bowser, and the Picard form Belcher —

" The great belsire, the grandsire, sire, and sonne,
Lie here interred under this grave stone."

(Weever, Ancient Funeral Monuments.")

To relationships by marriage belongs sometimes the
name Gander, corresponding to Fr. Legendre, the son-in-
law, Lat. gener. Its normal forms are Gender, Ginder.
Fitch, usually an animal nickname (p. 225), is occa-
sionally for le fiz, the son, which also survives as
Fitz. Goodson, from the personal name Good (p. 4),
sometimes corresponds to the French surname Lefilleul,
i.e. the godson.

A possible derivative of the name May (p. 195) is
Ivimey. Holly and Ivy were the names of characters
in Christmas games, and an old rime says —

" Holy and his mery men, they dawnsyn and they syng,
Ivy and hur maydins, they wepen and they wryng."

If Ivimey is from this source, the same origin must

ABSTRACTS 197

sometimes be allowed to Holliman (p. 6). This con-
jecture 1 has in its favour the fact that many of our
surnames are undoubtedly derived from characters
assumed in dramatic performances and popular festivi-
ties. To this class belong many surnames which have
the form of abstract nouns, e.g. Charity, Verity, Virtue,
Vice. Of similar origin are perhaps Bliss, Chance,
Luck, and Goodluck ; cf. Bonaventure. Love, Luff,
occur generally as a personal name, hence the dim.
Lufkins, but it is sometimes a nickname. Lovell,
Lovett, more often mean little wolf. Both Louvet and
Louveau are common French surnames. The name
Lovett, in the wolf sense, was often applied to a dog,
as in the famous couplet —

" The ratte, the catte, and Lovell, our dogge
Rule all England under the hogge,"

for which William Collingborne was executed in 1484.
Lowell is a variant of Lovell.

But many apparent abstract names are due to folk-
etymology, e.g. Marriage is local, Old Fr. marage,
marsh, and Wedlock is imitative for the local Wedlake ;
cf . Mortlock for Mortlake and perhaps Diplock for deep-
lake. Creed is the Anglo-Saxon personal name Creda.
Revel, a common French surname, is a personal
name. Wisdom is local, from a spot in Devon, and
Want is the Mid. Eng. wont, mole, whence Wontner,
mole-catcher. It is difficult to see how such names as
Warr, Battle, and Conquest came into existence. The
former, found as de la wane, is no doubt sometimes for
Weir (p. 129), and Battle is a dim. of Bat (p. 57). But
de la batayle is also a common entry, and Laguerre and
Labataille are common French surnames.

1 Ferguson, in his Surnames as a Science.

198 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

A nickname was often conferred in connection with
some external object regularly associated with the
individual. Names taken from shop-signs really be-
long to this class. Corresponding to our Hood ' we
have Fr. Capron {chaperon). Bur don, Fr. bourdon,
meant a staff, especially a pilgrim's staff. Daunger
is described as having —

" In his honde a gret burdoun" (Romaunt of the Rose, 3401).

But the name Burdon is also local. Bracegirdle, i.e.
breeks-girdle, must have been the nickname of one
who wore a gorgeous belt. The Sussex name Quaife
represents the Norman pronunciation of coif. More
usually an adjective enters into such combinations.
With the historic Curthose, Longsword, Strongbow
we may compare Shorthouse, a perversion of short-hose,
Longstaff, Horlock (hoar), Silverlock, Whitlock, etc. With
Lovelock I should put Crockett, Old Fr. crochet, a curled
lock, and perhaps Lovibond, found earlier as love-band.
But the pretty name Lovelace is a corruption of the de-
pressing Loveless ; cf . Lawless and probably Bindloss.
Woollard may be the Anglo-Saxon personal name
Wulfheard, but is more probably from woolward, i.e.
without linen, a costume assumed as a sign of peni-
tence —

" Wolwarde, without any lynnen nexte ones body, sans chemyse."

(Palsgrave.)

The three names Medley, Medlicott, and Motley go
together, though all three of them may be local (the
mid-lea, the middle-cot, and the moat-lea). Medley,
mixed, is the Anglo-French past participle of Old Fr.

1 Hood has another origin (p. 3), but the garment is made into
a personal name in Little Red Ridinghood, who is called in French
le petit Chaperon Rouge.

COSTUME 199

metier {meler). Motley is of unknown origin, but it
was not necessarily a fool's dress —

"A marchant was ther with a forked berd,
In mottelye, and hye on horse he sat.
Upon his heed a Flaundryssh bevere hat" (A, 270).

So also the Serjeant of the Law was distinguished
by his, for the period, plain dress —

" He rood but hoomly in a medlee cote " (A, 328).

Gildersleeve is now rare in England, though it still
flourishes in the United States. 1

Names like Beard, Chinn, Tooth were conferred
because of some prominent feature. In Anglo-French

1 We have several instances of this phenomenon. A familiar
example is Lippincott, the original form of which was Luffincott
(Devonshire). But Bardsley's inclusion of American statistics is
often misleading. It is a well-known fact that the foreign names of
immigrants are regularly assimilated to English forms in the United
States. In some cases, such as Cook for Koch, Cope (p. 107) for
Kopf, Stout (p. 209) for Stolz or Stultz, the change is etymologically
justified. But in other cases, such as Tallman for Thalmann, dale-
man, Trout for Traut, faithful, the resemblance is accidental. Beam
and Chestnut, common in the States but very rare in England, re-
present an imitative form of Bohm or Behm, Bohemian, and a
translation of Kestenbaum, chestnut tree, both Jewish names. The
Becks and Bowmans of New York outnumber those of London by
about five to one, the first being for Beck, baker (p. 149), and the
second for Baumann, equivalent to Bauer, farmer. Bardsley ex-
plains the common American name Arrison by the fact that there
are Cockneys in America. It comes of course from Arend, a Dutch
name related to Arnold.

" A remarkable record in changes of surname was cited some years
ago by an American correspondent of Notes and Queries. ' The
changes which befell a resident of New Orleans were that when he
moved from an American quarter to a German neighbourhood his
name of Flint became Feuerstein, which for convenience was short-
ened to Stein. Upon his removal to a French district he was re-
christened Pierre. Hence upon his return to an English neighbour-
hood he was translated into Peters, and his first neighbours were
surprised and puzzled to find Flint turned Peters.' "

(Daily Chronicle, April 4, 191 3.)

200 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

we find gernon, moustache, now corrupted to Gam-
ham, and also al gernon, with the moustache, which
has become Algernon. But we have already seen
(p. 125) that some names which appear to belong
to this class are of local origin. So also Tongue
is derived from one of several places named Tong
or Tonge, though the ultimate origin is perhaps
in some cases the same, a "tongue" of land.
Quartermain is for quatre-mains, perhaps bestowed
on a very acquisitive person ; Joscius quatre-buches,
four mouths, and Roger tunekes, two necks, were alive
in the twelfth century ; and there is record of a Saracen
champion named quinze-paumes, though this is perhaps
rather a measure of height. Cheek I conjecture to
be for Chick. The odd-looking Kidney is for the local
Gidney-. There is a rare name Poindexter, appearing
in French as Poingdestre, " right fist." * I have seen it
explained as from the heraldic term point dexter, but
it is rather to be taken literally. I find Johannes
cum pugno in 11 84, and we can imagine that such a
name may have been conferred on a medieval bruiser.
There is also the possibility, considering the brutality
of many old nicknames, that the bearer of the name
had been judicially deprived of his right hand, a very
common punishment, especially for striking a feudal
superior. Thus Renaut de Montauban, finding that
his unknown opponent is Charlemagne, exclaims —

" J'ai forfait le poing destre dont je l'ai adese (struck)."

We have some nicknames describing gait, e.g.

Ambler and Shay lor —

" I shayle, as a man or horse dothe that gothe croked with his
leggs, je vas eschays " (Palsgrave) —

1 President Poincari's name appears to mean "square fist."

PHYSICAL FEATURES 201

and perhaps sometimes Trotter. If George Eliot had
been a student of surnames she would hardly have
named a heroine Nancy Lammiter, i.e. cripple —

" Though ye may think him a lamiter, yet, grippie for grippie, he'll
make the bluid spin frae under your nails " (Black Dwarf, ch. xvii.).

It may also be a variant of Chaucer's limitour, a
friar with authority to beg within certain bounds.
Pettigrew and Pettifer are of French origin, pied de grue
(crane) and pied de fer. The former is the origin of the
word pedigree, from a sign used in drawing genea-
logical trees. The Buckinghamshire name Puddifoot
and the aristocratic Pauncefote are unsolved. I should
like to suggest that the former is a corruption of
Pettifer. This is not so wild as it looks. We find the
intermediate form Puddifer, and the further cor-
ruption to Puddifoot is no more impossible than the
transformation of Ger. Saner-kraut, sour cabbage, into
Fr. choucroute, where the " sour " has become the
" cabbage." As for Pauncefote, I believe it simply
means what it appears to, viz. " belly-foot," a curious
formation, though not without parallels among obsolete
rustic nicknames, and an almost literal equivalent of
the Greek (Edipus.

In other languages as well as English we find money
nicknames. It is easy to understand how some of
these come into existence, e.g. that Pierce Pennilesse
was the opposite of Thomas Thousandpound, whose
name occurs c. 1300. With the latter we may com-
pare Fr. Centlivre, the name of an English lady drama-
tist of the eighteenth century. Moneypenny is found
in 1273 as manipeni, and a Londoner named Manypeny
died in 1348. The Money- is partly north country,
partly imitative. Money itself is usually occupative

202 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

or local (p. 165), and Shilling is the Anglo-Saxon name
Scilling. The oldest and commonest of such nick-
names is the simple Penny, with which we may com-
pare the German surname Pfennig and its compounds
Barpfennig, Weisspfennig, etc. The early adoption of
this coin-name as a personal name is due to the fact
that the word was taken in the sense of money in
general. We still speak of a rich man as " worth a
pretty penny." Hallmark is folk-etymology for the
medievalhalf-mark. Such medieval namesas four-pence,
twenty-mark, etc., probably now obsolete, are paralleled
by Fr. Quatresous and Sixdenier, still to be found in the
Paris Directory. It would be easy to form conjectures
as to the various ways in which such names may have
come into existence. To the same class must belong
Besant, the name of a coin from Byzantium, its foreign
origin giving it a dignity which is absent from the
native Farthing and Halfpenny, though the latter, in
one instance, was improved beyond recognition into
Mac Alpine.

There is also a small group of surnames derived
from oaths or exclamations which by habitual use
became associated with certain individuals. We know
that monarchs had a special tendency to indulge in a
favourite expletive. To Roger de Collerye we owe
some information as to the imprecations preferred by
four French kings —

" Quand la Pasque-Dieu (Louis XI.) deceda,
Le Bon Jour Dieu (Charles VIII.) luy succeda ;
Au Bon Jour Dieu deffunct et mort
Succeda le Dyable m'emport (Louis XII.).
Luy decede, nous voyons comme
Nous duist (governs) la Foy de Gentilhomme (Francis • I.)."

So important was this branch of linguistics once con-

IMPRECATIONS 203

sidered that Palsgrave, the French tutor of Princess
Mary Tudor, includes in his Esclarcissement de la
Langue francoyse a section on " The Maners of
Cursyng." Among the examples are '* Le grant
diable luy rompe le col et les deux jambes," " Le diable
l'emporte, corps et ame, tripes et boyaux," which
were unfortunately too long for surname purposes, but
an abridged form of "Le feu Saint Anthoyne : l'arde "
has given the French name Feulard. Such names,
usually containing the name of God, e.g. Godmefetch,
Helpusgod, have mostly disappeared in this country ;
but Dieuleveut and Dieumegard are still found in Paris,
and Gottbehilt, God forbid, and Gotthelf, God help,
occur in German. Godbehere still exists, and there is
not the slightest reason why it should not be of the
origin which its form indicates. In Gracedieu, thanks
to God, the second element is an Old French dative.
Pardoe, Purdue, whence Purdey, is for par Dieu —

"I have a wyf pardee, as wel as thow" (A, 3158).

There is a well-known professional footballer named
Mordue ('sdeath), and a French composer named
Boieldieu (God's bowels). The French nickname for
an Englishman, Goddam 1 —

" Those syllables intense,
Nucleus of England's native eloquence"

(Byron, The Island, iii. 5) —

goes back to the fifteenth century, in which invective
references to the godons are numerous. Such nick-
names are still in common use in some parts of France —

1 Saint Anthony's fire, i.e. erysipelas, burn him !

2 " Les Anglais en verite ajoutent par-ci, par-la quelques autres
mots en conversant ; mais il est bien aise de voir que goddam est le
fond de la langue" (Beaumarchais, Manage de Figaro, iii. 5).

204 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

" Les Berrichons se designent souvent par le juron qui leur est
familier. Ainsi ils diront : ' Diable me brule est bien malade.
Norn d'un rat est a la foire. La femme a Diable m'estrangouille est
morte. Le garfon a Bon You (Dieu) se marie avec la fille a Dieu me
confonde.' "

(Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue franqaise, iv. 209).

Perhaps the most interesting group of nicknames
is that of which we may take Shakespeare as the type.
Incidentally we should be thankful that our greatest
poet bore a name so much more picturesque than
Corneille, crow, or Racine, root. It is agreed among
all competent scholars that in compounds of this
formation the verb was originally an imperative.
This is shown by the form ; cf . ne'er-do-well, Fr. vaurien,
Ger. Taugenichts, good - for - naught. Thus Hasluck
cannot belong to this class, but must be an imitative
form of the personal name Aslac, which we find in
Aslockton. As Bardsley well says, it is impossible
to retail all the nonsense that has been written about
the name Shakespeare — " never a name in English
nomenclature so simple or so certain in its origin ; it
is exactly what it looks — shake-spear." The equiva-
lent Schiittespeer is found in German, and we have also
in English Shakeshaft, Waghom, Wagstaff, Breakspear,
Winspear. " Winship the mariner " was a freeman
of York in the fourteenth century. Cf. Benbow
(bend-bow), Hurlbatt, and the less athletic Lovejoy,
Makepeace. Gathergood and its opposite Scattergood
are of similar origin, good having here the sense of
goods. Dogood is sometimes for Toogood, and the
latter may be, like Thoroughgood, an imitative form
of Thurgod (p. 73) ; but both names may also be
taken literally, for we find Ger. Thunichtgut, do no
good, and Fr. Troplong. As a pendant to Dolittle
we find a medieval hack-little, no doubt a lazy wood-

PHRASE-NAMES 205

cutter, while virtue is represented by a twelfth-cen-
tury tire-little. Sherwin in some cases represents the
medieval schere-wynd, applied to a swift runner ; cf .
Ger. Schneidewind, cut wind, and Fr. Tranchevent. A
nurseryman at Highgate has the appropriate name
Cutbush, the French equivalent of which, Taillebois,
has given us Tallboys; and a famous herbalist was
named Culpepper. In Gathercole the second element
may mean cabbage or charcoal. In one case, Horni-
blow for horn-blow, the verb comes after its object.

Names of this formation are very common in Mid.
English as in Old French, and often bear witness to a
violent or brutal nature. Thus scorch-beef, which is
found in the Hundred Rolls, has no connection with
careless cookery ; it is Old Fr. escorche(ecorche)-buef,
flay ox, a name given to some medieval " Skin-the-
goat." Catchpole (p. 184) is formed in the same way,
and in French we find, applied to law officials, the
surnames Baillehart, give l halter, and Baillehache, give
axe, the latter still appropriately borne, as Bailhache,
by an English judge.

It has sometimes been assumed that most names of
this class are due to folk-etymology. The frequency
of their occurrence in Mid. English and in continental
languages makes it certain that the contrary is the
case and that many surnames of obscure origin are
perversions of this very large and popular class. I
have seen it stated somewhere that Shakespeare is a
corruption of an Old French name Sacquespee,* the
theorist being apparently unable to see that this latter,
meaning draw-sword, is merely an additional argument,

1 Baffler, the usual Old French for to give, is still used collo-
quially and in dialect.

2 Of common occurrence in Mid. English records.

206 OF NICKNAMES IN GENERAL

if such were needed, for the literal interpretation of
the English name. 1

Tredgold seems to have been conferred on some
medieval stoic, for we find also spumegold. With-
out pinning our faith to any particular anecdote,
we need have no hesitation in accepting Turnbull
as a sobriquet conferred for some feat of strength
and daring on a stalwart Borderer. We find the
corresponding Tornebeuf in Old French, and Turn-
buck also occurs. Trumbull and Trumble are variants
due to metathesis followed by assimilation (p. 35), while
Tremble is a very degenerate form. In Knatchbull we
have a dialect form of the verb to " snatch " in its oldest
sense of to seize. Crawcour is Fr. Crhvecceur , break-
heart, which has also become a local name in France.
With Shacklock, shake-lock, and Sherlock, Shurlock,
shear-lock, we may compare. Robin Hood's comrade
Scathelock, though the precise interpretation of all three
names is difficult. Rackstraw, rake-straw, corresponds
to Fr. Grattepaille. Golightly means much the same as
Lightfoot (p. 126), nor need we hesitate to regard the
John Gotobed 2 who lived in Cambridgeshire in 1273
as a notorious sluggard compared with whom his
neighbour Serl go-to-kirke was a shining example.
Telfer is Fr. taille-fer, the iron cleaver, and Henry II. 's
yacht captain was Alan Trenchemer, the sea cleaver.
He had a contemporary named Ventados, wind abaft.

1 In one day's reading I came across the following : Baillebien
(give good), Baysedame (kiss lady), Esveillechien (wake dog),
Lievelance (raise lance), Metlefrein (put the bridle), Tracepurcel
(track hog), Turnecotel (turn coat), together with the native Cache-
hare and Hoppeschort.

3 The name is still found in the same county. Undergraduates
contemporary with the author occasionally slaked their thirst at
a riverside inn kept by Bathsheba Gotobed.

MISCELLANEOUS 207

Slocomb has assumed a local aspect, but may very
well correspond to Fr. Tardif or Ger. Miihsam, applied
to some Weary Willie of the Middle Ages. Doubffire
is a misspelling of dout-fire, from the dialect dout, to
extinguish (do out), formed like don and doff. Fullalove,
which does not belong to the same formation, is also
found as plein d' amour —

"Of Sir Lybeux and Pleyndamour " (B, 2090)- — ■

and corresponds to Ger. Liebevoll. Waddilove actually
occurs in the Hundred Rolls as wade-in-love, presumably
a nickname conferred on some medieval Don Juan.

There is one curious little group of nicknames which
seem to correspond to such Latin names as Piso,
from pisum, a pea, and Cicero, from cicer —

" Cicer, a small pulse, lesse than pease " (Cooper).

Such are Barleycorn and Peppercorn, the former found
in French as Graindorge. The rather romantic names
Avenel and P ever el seem to mean very much the same,
from Lat. avena, oats, and piper, pepper. In fact
Peverel is found in Domesday as Piperellus, and Pep-
perell still exists. With ( these may be mentioned
Carbonel, corresponding to the French surname Char-
bonneau, a little coal.

CHAPTER XXII

ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES

" The man replied that he did not know the object of the building ;
and to make it quite manifest that he really did not know, he put
an adjective before the word ' object,' and another — that is, the
same — before the word ' building.' With that he passed on his
way, and Lord Jocelyn was left marvelling at the slender resources
of our language, which makes one adjective do duty for so many
qualifications."

(Besant, All Sorts and Conditions of Men, ch. xxxviii.)

The rejection by the British workman of all adjectives
but one is due to the same imaginative poverty which
makes the adjective "nice" supreme in refined circles,
and which limits the schoolgirl to " ripping" and her
more self-conscious brother to the tempered " decent."
But dozens of useful adjectives, now either obsolete or
banished to rustic dialect, are found among our sur-
names. The tendency to accompany every noun by an
adjective seems to belong to some deep-rooted human
instinct. To this is partly due the Protean character
of this part of speech, for the word, like the coin,
becomes dulled and worn in circulation and needs peri-
odically to be withdrawn and replaced. An epithet
which is complimentary in one generation is ironical
in the next and eventually offensive. Moody, with
its northern form Mudie, which now means morose,
was once valiant (p. 5), and pert, surviving in the
name Peart, meant active, brisk, etc. —

" Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth."

(Midsummer Night's Dream, i. i.)
208

ARCHAIC MEANINGS 209

To interpret an adjectival nickname we must go to
its meaning in Chaucer and his contemporaries. Silly,
Seeley, Seely —

"This sely, innocent Custance " (B, 682) —

still means innocent when we speak of the " silly
sheep " and happy in the phrase " silly Suffolk."
It is cognate with Ger. selig, blessed, often used in
speaking of the dead. We have a compound in
Sillifant, simple child (see p. 94), and Selibam has
become Silburn. Seely was also used for Cecil or Cecilia.
Sadd was once sedate and steadfast —

" But thogh this mayde tendre were of age,
Yet in the brest of hire virginitee
Ther was enclosed rype and sad corage "

(E, 218);

and as late as 1660 we find a book in defence of
Charles I. described as —

" A sad and impartial inquiry whether the King or Parliament
began the war."

Stout, valiant, now used euphemistically for fat, is
cognate with Ger. stolz, proud, and possibly with Lat.
stultus, foolish. The three ideas are not incompatible,
for fools are notoriously proud of their folly and are
said to be less subject to fear than the angels. Sturdy,
Sturdee, once meant rebellious, pig-headed —

" Sturdy, unbuxum, rebellis, contumax, inobediens."

(Prompt. Parv.)

Cotgrave offers a much wider choice for the French
original —

" Estourdi (Atourdi), dulled, amazed, astonished, dizzie-headed,
or whose head seemes very much troubled ; (hence) also, heedlesse,
inconsiderate, unadvised, witlesse, uncircumspect, rash, retchlesse,
or carelesse ; and sottish, blockish, lumpish, lusk-like, without life,
me tall, spirit."

15

210 ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES

Sly and its variant Sleigh have degenerated in the same
way as crafty and cunning, both of which once meant
skilled. Chaucer calls the wings of Daedalus " his
playes slye," i.e. his ingenious contrivances. Quick
meant alert, lively, as in " the quick and the dead."
Slight, cognate with Ger. schlecht, bad, once meant
plain or simple.

Many adjectives which are quite obsolete in literary
English survive as surnames. Mid. English Lyte has
been supplanted by its derivative Little, the opposite
pair surviving as Mutch and Mickle. The poor parson
did not fail —

" In siknesse nor in meschief to visite
The ferreste in his parisshe, muche and lyte."

(A, 493-)

We have for Lyte also the imitative Light ; cf. Light-
wood. With Little may be mentioned Murch, an
obsolete word for dwarf —

" Murch, lytyl man, nanus."

(Prompt. Parv.)

Lenain is a fairly common name in France. Snell,
swift and valiant, had become a personal name in
Anglo-Saxon, but we find le snel in the Middle Ages.
Freake, Frick, also meant valiant or warrior —

" Ther was no freke that ther wolde flye"

{Chevy Chase) ;

but the Prompt. Parv. makes it equivalent to Craske
(p. 212)—

" Fryhe, or craske, in grete helth, crassus."

It is cognate with Ger. frech, which now means impu-
dent. Nott has already been mentioned (p. 16). Of
the Yeoman we are told —

" A not hed hadde he, with a broun visage."

(A, 109.)

DISGUISED SPELLINGS 211

Stark, cognate with starch, now usually means stiff,
rather than strong—

" I feele my lyraes stark and suffisaunt
To do al that a man bilongeth to."

(E, 1458.)

But Stark is often for an earlier Sterk (cf . Clark and
Clerk), which represents Mid. Eng. stirk, a heifer. In
the cow with the crumpled horn we have a derivative
of Mid. Eng. crum, crooked, whence the names Crum
and Crump. Ludwig's German Diet. (1715) explains
krumm as " crump, crooked, wry." The name Crook
generally has the same meaning, the Ger. Krummbein
corresponding to our northern Cruikshank. Glegg
(Scand.), clear-sighted, has been confused with Clegg
(Welsh), a rock.

There are some adjectival surnames which are not
immediately recognizable. Bolt, when not local (p. 133),
is for bold, Leaf is imitative for lief, i.e. dear. Dear
itself is of course hopelessly mixed up with Deer. The
timorous-looking Fear is Fr. le fier, the proud or fierce.
Skey is an old form of shy ; Bligh is for Blyth ; Hendy
and Henty are the same word as handy, and had in
Mid. English the sense of helpful, courteous —

" Oure hoost tho spak, ' A, sire, ye sholde be hende
And curteys, as a man of youre estat.' "

(D, 1286.)

For Savage we find also the archaic spelling Salvage
(Lat. silvaticus) . Curtis is Norman Fr. curteis (courtois) .
The adjective garish, now only poetical, but once
commonly applied to gaudiness in dress, has given
Gerrish. Quaint, which has so many meanings inter-
mediate between its etymological sense of known or
familiar (Lat. cognitus) and its present sense of unusual
or unfamiliar, survives as Quint. But Coy is local,

212 ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES

from Quy (Cambridgeshire). The name Neish repre-
sents the familiar Midland adjective nesh, over-delicate,
namby-pamby, Craske is an East Anglian word for
fat, and Grouse is used in the north for sprightly,
confident. To these we may add Ketch, Kedge, Gedge,
from an East Anglian adjective meaning lively—

" Kygge, or joly, jocundus " (Prompt. Parv.) —

and Spragg, etymologically akin to Spry. Bragg was
once used for bold or brave, without any uncompli-
mentary suggestion. The New English Dictionary
quotes (c. 1310) from a lyric poem —

" That maketh us so brag and bolde
And biddeth us ben blythe."

Crease is a West-country word for squeamish, but
the East Anglian name Creasey, Cressy, is for the local
Kersey (Suffolk). The only solution of Pratt is that
it is Anglo-Sax. prmtt, cunning, adopted early as a
personal name, while Storr, of Scandinavian origin,
means big, strong. It is cognate with Steer, a bull.
Devey and Dombey seem to be the diminutive forms
of deaf and dumb, which are still used in dialect in
reference to persons thus afflicted. We find in French
and German surnames corresponding to these very
natural nicknames. Cf. Crombie from Crum (p. 211).
A large proportion of our adjectival nicknames are
of French origin. Le bel appears not only as Bell but
also, through Picard, as Beat. Other examples are
Boon, Bone, Bunn (bon), Grant (grand), Bass (bas)
and its derivative Bassett, Dasent (d6cent), Follett and
Folliott, dim. of fol (fou), mad, which also appears in
the compound Foljambe. Mordaunt means biting.
Power is Anglo-Fr. le poure (le pauvre) and Grace is

FRENCH ADJECTIVES 213

for le gras, the fat. Joliffe represents the Old French
form of jolt —

"This Absolon, that jolif was and gay,
Gooth with a sencer (censer) on the haliday."

(A, 3339-)

Prynne, now Pring, is Anglo-Fr. le prin, the first, from
the Old French adjective which survives in ^>n«temps.
Cf. our name Prime and the French name Premier.
The Old French adjective Gent, now replaced by gentil,
generally means slender in Mid. English —

"Fair was this yonge wyf, and therwithal
As any wezele hir body gent and smal."

(A, 3233)

Begg is in some cases le begue, the stammerer. In
Prowse and Prout we have the nominative and objective
(see p. 9, n.) of an Old French adjective now repre-
sented by preux and prude, generally thought to be
related in some way to Lat. pro in pro sum, and
perhaps the source of our Proud.

Gross is of course Fr. le gros, but Grote represents Du.
groot, great, probably unconnected with the French
word. The Devonshire name Coffin, which is found in
that county in the twelfth century, is the same as
Caffyn, and both are the Fr. Chauvin, bald, the name
of the theologian whom we know better in the latinized
form Calvin. Here belongs probably Shovel, Fr.
Chauvel. We also have the simple Chaff e, Old Fr.
chauf (chauve), bald. Gay lard, sometimes made into
the imitative Gay lord, is Fr. gaillard, brisk, lively—

" Gaillard he was as goldfynch in the shawe."

(A, 4367.)

Especially common are colour nicknames, generally
due to the complexion, but sometimes to the garb.
As we have already seen (p. 149), Black and its variant

214 ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES

Blake sometimes mean pale. Blagg is the same word ;
cf. Blagrave (see p. no). White has no doubt been
reinforced by wight, valiant —

" Oh for one hour of Wallace
Or well-skilled Bruce to rule the fight."

(Marmion, vi. 20.)

As an epithet applied to the hair we often find Hoar;
cf. Horlock. Redd is rare, the usual forms being the
northern Reid, Reed, Read ; but we also have Rudd from
Anglo-Sax. rud, whence ruddy and the name Ruddock,
really a bird nickname, the redbreast. To these must
be added Rudge, Fr. rouge, Rouse, Rush and Russ, Fr.
roux, and Russell or Rowsell, Old Fr. roussel (Rousseau) .
The commonest nickname for a fair-haired person was
Blunt, Blount, Fr. blond, with its dim. Blundell, but
the true English name is Fairfax, from Anglo-Sax.
feax, hair. The New English Dictionary quotes from
the fifteenth century —

" Then they lowsyd hur feyre faxe,
That was yelowe as the waxe."

The adjective dun was once a regular name, like
Dobbin or Dapple, for a cart-horse ; hence the name of
the old rural sport " Dun in the mire " —

" If thou art dun we'll draw thee from the mire."

(Romeo and Juliet, i. 4.)

It is possible that the name Dunn is sometimes due
to this specific application of the word. The colour
blue appears as Blew —

" At last he rose, and twitch'd his mantle blew :
To-morrow to fresh woods and pastures new "

[Lycidas, 1. 192) —

and earlier still as Blow —

" Blak, bio, grenysh, swartysh, reed."

(House of Fame, iii. 557.)

COLOUR NAMES 215

Other colour names of French origin are Morel,
swarthy, like a Moor, also found as Murrell, 1 and Burnett,
Burnett, dims, of brun, brown. Chaucer speaks of —

" Daun 2 Burnel the asse " (B, 4502) ;
" Daun Russel the fox " (B, 4524.)

But both Burnett and Burnett may also be local from
places ending in -hill and -head (p. 126), and Burnett is
sometimes for Burnard. The same applies to Burrell,
usually taken to be from Mid. Eng. borel, a rough
material, Old Fr. bur el (bureau), also used metaphori-
cally in the sense of plain, uneducated —

"And moore we seen of Cristes secree thynges
Than buret folk, al though they weren kynges."

(D, 1871.)

The name can equally well be the local Burhill or
Burwell.

Murray is too common to be referred entirely to the
Scottish name and is sometimes for murrey, dark red
(Fr. mure, mulberry). It may also represent merry,
in its variant form murie, which is Mid. English, and
not, as might appear, Amurrican —

" His murie men comanded he
To make hym bothe game and glee."

(B, 2029.)

Pook, of uncertain origin, is supposed to have been a
dark russet colour. Bayard, a derivative of bay,
was the name of several famous war-horses. Cf.
Blank and Blanchard. The name Soar is from the
Old French adjective sor, bright yellow. It is of
Germanic origin and cognate with sear. The dim.
Sorrel may be a colour name, but it was applied in

1 This, like Merrill, is sometimes from Muriel.

3 Lat. dominus, the masculine form of dame in Old French.

216 ADJECTIVAL NICKNAMES

venery to a buck in the third year, of course in refer-
ence to colour; and some of our names, e.g. Brocket
and Prickett, 1 both applied to a two-year-old stag, must
sometimes be referred to this important department
of medieval language. Holofernes uses some of these
terms in his idiotic verses —

" The preyful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket ;
Some say a sore ; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting.
The dogs did yell ; put I to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket."

(Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 2.)

A few adjective nicknames of Celtic origin are so
common that they may be included here. Such are the
Welsh Gough, Goff, Gooch, Gutch, red, Gwynn and
Wynne, white, Lloyd, grey, Sayce, Saxon, foreigner,
Vaughan, little, and the Gaelic Bain, Bean, white,
Boyd, Bowie, yellow-haired, Dow, Duff, black, Finn,
fair, Glass, grey, Roy, Roe, red. From Cornish come
Coad, old, and Couch, red, while Bean is the Cornish
for small, and Tyacke means a farmer. It is likely
that both Begg and Moore owe something to the Gaelic
adjectives for little and big, as in the well-known
names of Callum Beg, Edward Waverley's gillie, and
' McCallum More. The Gaelic Begg is cognate with the
Welsh Vaughan. Two other famous Highland nick-
names which are very familiar in England are Cameron,
crooked nose, and Campbell, wry mouth. With these
may be mentioned the Irish Kennedy, ugly head, the
name of the father of Brian Boru.

1 Both words are connected with the spiky young horns, Fr.
broche, spit, being applied in venery to the pointed horns of the
second year.

CHAPTER XXIII

BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

"As I think I have already said, one of Umslopogaas' Zulu
names was The Woodpecker."

(Haggard,' A Uan Quatermain, ch. vii.)

The great majority of nicknames coming under the
Tieadings typified by Bird and Fowell, Best, and Fish or
Fisk (Scand.) are easily identified. But here, as every-
where in the subject, pitfalls abound. The name Best
itself is an example of a now misleading spelling re-
tained for obvious reasons —

"First, on the wal was peynted a forest,
" In which ther dwelleth neither man nor best."

(A, 1976.)

We do not find exotic animals, nor even the beasts of
heraldry, at all frequently. Leppard, leopard, is in
some cases for the Ger. Liebhart; and Griffin, when
not Welsh, should no doubt be included among inn-
signs. Oliphant, i.e. elephant —

" For maystow surmounten thise olifauntes in gretnesse or weighte
of body " (Boece, 782) —

may be a genuine nickname, but Roland's ivory horn
was also called by this name, and the surname may
go back to some legendary connection of the same kind.
Bear is not uncommon, captive bears being familiar
to a period in which the title bear-ward is frequently
met with. It is possible that Drake may sometimes

217

218 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

represent Anglo-Sax. draca, dragon, rather than the
bird, but the latter is unmistakable in Sheldrick, for
sheldrake. As a rule, animal nicknames were taken
rather from the domestic species with which the
peasantry were familiar and whose habits would readily
suggest comparisons, generally disparaging, with those
of their neighbours.

Bird names are especially common, and it does not
need much imagination to see how readily and naturally
a man might be nicknamed Hawke for his fierceness,
Crowe from a gloomy aspect, or Nightingale for the gift
of sweet song. Many of these surnames go back to
words which are now either obsolete or found only in
dialect. The peacock was once the Poe, an early loan
from Lat. pavo, or, more fully, Pocock —

" A sheaf of pocok arwes, bright and kene,
Under his belt he bar ful thriftily."

(A, 104.)

The name Pay is another form of the same word.
Coe, whence Hedgecoe, is an old name for the jackdaw —

" Cadow, or coo, or chogh (chough), monedula "

(Prompt. Pan.') —

but may also stand for cow, as we find, in defiance of
gender and sex, such entries as Robert le cow, William
le vache. Those birds which have now assumed a font-
name, such as Jack daw, Mag pie, of course occur with-
out it as surnames, e.g. Daw and Pye —

" The thief the chough, and eek the jangelyng pye "

(Parliament of Fowls, 305).

The latter has a dim. Pyatt.

Rainbird is a local name for the green woodpecker.
As a surname it may also, like Rainbow, be an imitative
form of Fr. Rimbaud or Raimbaud, identical with

BIRDS 219

Anglo-Sax. Regenbeald. Knott is the name of a bird
which frequents the sea-shore and, mindful of Cnut's
wisdom, retreats nimbly before the advancing surf —

" The knot that called was Canutus' bird of old."

(Drayton, Polyolbion, xxv. 368.)

This historical connection is most probably due to
folk-etymology. Titmus is of course for tit-mouse.
Dialect names for the woodpecker survive in Speight,
Speke, and Spick, Pick. The same bird was also
called woodwall —

" In many places were nyghtyngales,
Alpes, fynches, and wodewahs "

(Romaunt of the Rose, 567) —

hence, in some cases, the name Woodatt. The Alpe,
or bullfinch, mentioned in the above lines, also survives
as a surname. Dunnock and Pinnock are dialect names
for the sparrow. It was called in Anglo-Norman
muisson, whence Musson. Starling is a dim. of Mid.
Eng. stare, which has itself given the surname Starr —

" The stare, that the counseyl can be-wrye."

(Parliament of Fowls, 348. }

Heron is the French form of the bird-name which was
in English Heme —

" I come from haunts of coot and hern."

(Tennyson, The Brook, 1. 1.)

The Old French dim. heronceau also passed into

English —

"I wol nat tellen of hir strange sewes (courses),
Ne of hir swannes, ne of hire heronsewes."

(F, 67.)

As a surname it has been assimilated to the local,
and partly identical, Heamshaw (p. no). Some com-
mentators go to this word to explain Hamlet's use of
handsaw —

220 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

"lam but mad north-north-west : when the^wind is southerly,
I know a hawk from a handsaw" (Hamlet, ii. 2).

When the author's father was a boy in Suffolk seventy
years ago, the local name for the bird was pronounced
exactly like answer. Grew is Fr. grue, crane, Lat. grus,
gru-. Butter, Fr. butor, " a bittor " (Cotgrave), is a
dialect name for the bittern, called a " butter-bump "
by Tennyson's Northern Farmer (1. 31). Culver
is a very early loan-word from Latin —

" Columba, a culver, a dove "

(Cooper) —

hence the local Culverhouse. Dove often becomes Duff.
Whichetto, which can be seen both in Cambridge and
Hammersmith, is Ital. uccello, identical with Fr. oiseau,
Vulgar Lat. avicellus. Popjoy may have been applied
to the successful archer who became king of the
popinjay for the year. The derivation of the word,
Old Fr. papegai, whence Mid. Eng. papejay —

" The briddes synge, it is no nay,

The sparhawk and the papejay,

That joye it was to heere "

(B, 1956)-

is obscure, though various forms of it are found in
most of the European languages. In English it was
applied not only to the parrot, but also to the green
woodpecker. The London Directory form is Pobgee.
With bird nicknames may be mentioned Callow, un-
fledged, cognate with Lat. calvus, bald. Its opposite
also survives as Fleck and Flick —

" Flygge, as byrdis, maturus, volabilis."

(Prompt. Parv.)

Margaret Paston, writing (1460) of the revived hopes of
Henry VI., says —

" Now he and alle his olde felawship put owt their fynnes, and
am ryght flygge and mery."

HAWK NAMES 221

We have naturally a set of names taken from the
various species of falcons. To this class belongs
Haggard, probably related to Anglo-Sax. haga, hedge,
and used of a hawk which had acquired incurable habits
of wildness by preying for itself. But Haggard is also
a personal name (p. 81). Spark, earlier Sparhawk, is
the sparrow-hawk. It is found already in Anglo-Saxon
as a personal name, which accounts for the patronymic
Sparks. Tassell is a corruption of tiercel, a name given
to the male goshawk, so termed, according to the
legendary lore of venery —

" Because he is, commonly, a third part lesse than the female."

(Cotgrave.)

Juliet calls Romeo her " tassell gentle " (ii. 2). Muskett
was a name given to a very small hawk —

" Musket, a lytell hauke, mouchet."

(Palsgrave.)

Mushet is the same name. It comes from Ital.
moschetto, a little fly. For its later application to a
firearm cf. falconet. Other names of the hawk class
are Buzzard and Puttock, i.e. kite —

" Milan, a kite, puttock, glead "

(Cotgrave) ;

and to the same bird we owe the name Gleed, from a
Scandinavian name for the bird —

" And the glede, and the kite, and the vulture after his kind."

(Deut. xiv. 13.)

To this class also belongs Ramage —

" Ramage, of, or belonging to, branches ; also, ramage, hagard,
wild, homely, rude " (Cotgrave) —

and sometimes Lennard, an imitative form of the

inferior hawk called a lanner —

" Falcunculus, a leonard."

(Holyoak, Lat, Diet., 1612.)

222 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

Povey is a dialect name for the owl, and Howlett is not
always a double dim. of Hugh (p. 59).

Among beast nicknames we find special attention
given, as in modern vituperation, to the swine, although
we do not find this true English word, unless it be oc-
casionally disguised as Swain. Hogg does not belong
exclusively to this class, as it is used in dialect both
of a young sheep and a yearling colt. Anglo-Sax.
sugu, sow, survives in Sugg. Purcell is Old Fr. fourcel
(pourceau), dim. of Lat. ftorcus, and I take Pockett
to be a disguised form of the obsolete porket —

" Porculus, a pygg : a shoote : a porket."

(Cooper.)

The word shoote in the above gloss is now the dialect
shot, a young pig, which has given the surname Shott.
But Scutt is from a Mid. English adjective meaning
short —

" Scute, or shorte, curtus, brevis "

(Prompt. Paw.) —

and is also an old name for the hare. Two other names
for the pig are the northern Gait and the Lincolnshire
Grice —

" Marcassin, a young wild boare ; a shoot or grice."

(Cbtgrave.)

Grice also represents le gris, the grey ; cf . Grace
for le gras (p. 212). Bacon is occasionally found as
le bacon, presumably a bacon-hog, but it is generally a
personal name. As it is common in French, it would
appear to be an Old French accusative to Back, going
back to Germanic Bacco (see p. 125). Rinks is Mid.
Eng. hengst, a stallion, and is thus identical with Hengist
(p. 186). Stott means both a bullock and a nag (p. 1.79) .
Everyone remembers Wamba's sage disquisition on
the names of animals in the first chapter of Ivanhoc.

BEASTS 223

Like much of Scott's archaeology it is a little anachron-
istic, for the live animals were also called veals and
muttons for centuries after Wamba's death —

" Mouton, a mutton, a weather"; "veau, a calfe, or veale."

(Cotgrave.)

Calf has become very rare as a surname, though K alb
is still common in Germany. Bardsley regards Duncalf
and Metcalf as perverted from dun-croft and meadow-
croft. It seems possible that they may be for down-
calf and mead-calf, from the locality of the pasture,
but this is a pure guess on my part. It is curious that
beef does not appear to have survived, though Lebceuf
is common in French, and bullocks are still called
" beeves " in Scotland. Tegg is still used by butchers
for a two-year-old sheep. Palsgrave gives it another
meaning —

" Tegg, or pricket (p. 216), saillant."

Roe is also found in the older forms Rae and Ray, of
course confused with Wray (p. 127), as Roe itself is
with Rowe (p. 9). Doe often becomes Dowe. Hind
is usually occupative (p. 35), but Fr. Labiche shows
that it must sometimes be a nickname —

" Biche, a hind ; the female of a stagge.''

(Cotgrave.)

Pollard was applied to a beast or stag that had lost its
horns —

" He has no horns, sir, has he ? "
"No, sir, he's a pollard."

(Beaumont and Fletcher, Philaster, v. 4.)

Leverett is certified by the French surname Levrault.
Derivation from Lever, Anglo-Sax. Leofhere, whence
Levers, Leverson, or Leveson, is much less probable,
as these Anglo-Saxon names rarely form dims, (see
p. 76) . Luttrel is in French Loutrel, perhaps a dim. of

224 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

loutre, otter, Lat. lutra. From the medieval lutrer or
lutrarius, otter hunter, we get Lutterer, no doubt con-
fused with the musical Luter.

While Katt is fairly common in the eastern counties,
Robertus le chien and Willelmus le curre, who were
living about the end of the twelfth century, are now
completely disguised as Ken and Kerr. Modern French
has both Lechien and the Norman Lequien. 1 We owe
a few other surnames to the friend of man. Kennett,
from a Norman dim. of chien, meant greyhound —

" Kenette, hounde, leporarius."

(Prompt. Parv.)

The origin of the name Talbot is unknown, and it is
uncertain whether the hound or the family should have
precedence ; but Chaucer seems to use it as the proper
name of a hound —

" Ran Colle our dogge, and Talbot, and Gerland
And Malkyn, with a dystaf in hir hand."

(B, 4573-)

The great Earl of Shrewsbury is affectionately called
" Talbot, our good dogge " in political rhymes of the
fifteenth century.

In early dictionaries may be found long lists of the
fanciful names, such as Bright, Lightfoot, Ranger, Ring-
wood, Swift, Tempest, given to hounds. This practice
seems to throw some light on such surnames as Tempest,
with which we may compare the German names Storm
and Sturm. In the Pipe Rolls the name le esturmi, the
stormy, occurs several times. To the same class belongs
Thunder, found in the Pipe Rolls as tonitruus, and not
therefore necessarily a perversion of Tunder, i.e.
Sherman (p. 170) —

1 Lehain, the name of a famous French actor, has the same origin.

FISHES 225

" Tandeur de draps, a shearman, or clothworker."

(Cotgrave.)

Garland, used by Chaucer as a dog's name, was earlier
graland, and, as le garlaunde is also found, it may be
referred to Old Fr. grailler, to trumpet. It is no doubt
also local.

We should expect Fox to be strongly represented,
and we find the compounds Colfox and Stelfox. The
first means black fox —

'• A colfox ful of sly iniquitee "

(B, 4405)—

and I conjecture that the first part of Stelfox is con-
nected with stealing, as in the medieval name stele-cat —

" The two constables made a thorough search and found John
Stelfox hiding behind some bushes. Some of the jewellery was found
upon him " (Daily Chronicle, June 3, 191 3).

In the north a fox is called Tod, whence Todhunter.
This Tod is probably a personal name, like the French
Renard and the Scottish Lawrie or Lowrie, applied
to the same animal. Allan Ramsay calls him " slee
Tod Lowrie." From the badger we have Brock and
sometimes Gray —

" Blaireau, a badger, gray, boason, brock "

(Cotgrave) —

but Badger itself is occupative (p. 181). The polecat
survives as Fitch, Fitchett, and Fitchew —

" Fissau, a fitch, or fulmart."

(Cotgrave.)

On fish-names Bardsley remarks, " We may quote
the famous chapter on ' Snakes in Iceland ' : ' There
are no snakes in Iceland,' and say there are no
fish-names in England." This is almost true. The
absence of marked traits of character in the, usually
16

226 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

invisible, fish would militate against the adoption of
such names. We should not expect to find the shark to
be represented, for the word is of too late occurrence.
But Whale is fairly common. Whale the mariner
received £2 from Henry VII. 's privy purse in 1498.
The story of Jonah, or very generous proportions,
may have originated the name Whalebelly, " borne
by a respectable family in south-east England "
(Bardsley) .

But there would obviously be no great temptation to
go fishing for nicknames when the beasts of the farm-
yard and the forest, the birds of the marshes and the
air, offered on every side easily understood comparisons.
At the same time Bardsley's statement goes a little
too far. He explains Gudgeon as a corruption of
Goodison. But this, true though it may be in some
cases, will not explain the very common French sur-
name Goujon. The phrase ' ' greedy gudgeon ' ' suggests
that in this case a certain amount of character had
been noticed in the fish. Sturgeon also seems to be
a genuine fish-name. We find Fr. Lesturgeon and Ger.
Stoer, both meaning the same. We have also Smelt
and the synonymous Spurling. In French and German
we find other surnames which undoubtedly belong to
this class, but they are not numerous and probably at
first occurred only in regions where fishing or fish-
curing were important industries.

A few examples will show that apparent fish-names
are usually not genuine. Chubb is for Job (p. 32),
Eeles is one of the numerous derivatives of Elias
(P- 85), Hake is, like Hack, from the Scandinavian
Haco, Haddock is a perversion of the local Haydock,
Lamprey I take to be Fr. long-pre, long meadow.
We find the halfway form in Fr. Lompre. Pike is

SPECIAL FEATURES 227

local (p. 107), Pilchard is for Pilcher (p. 171), Roach is
Fr. Laroche, Salmon is for Salomon, and Turbot is the
Anglo-Sax. Thurbeorht, which has also given Tarbut,
as Thurgod has given Targett. Dolphin, Herring,
and Spratt or Sprot are old personal names possibly
unconnected with the corresponding fish-names.

We have also many surnames due to physical re-
semblances not extending beyond one feature. Birdseye
may be sometimes of local origin, from ey, island
(p. 117), but as a genuine nickname it is as natural as
the sobriquet of Hawkeye which Natty Bumppo re-
ceived from the Hurons. German has the much less
pleasing Gansauge, goose-eye ; and Alan oil de larrun,
thief's eye, was fined for very reprehensible conduct in
1 183. To explain Crowfoot as an imitative variant
of Crawford is absurd when we find a dozen German
surnames of the same class and formation and as many
in Old or Modern French beginning with pied de.
Cf. Pettigrew (p. 201). We find in the Paris Directory
not only Piedeleu (Old Fr. leu, wolf) and Piedoie,
(pie, goose), but even the full Pied-de-LUvre, Professeur
a la Faculte de droit. The name Bulleid was spelt in
the sixteenth century buV-hed, i.e. bull-head, a literal
rendering of Front de Bceuf. Weatherhead (p. 179) is
perhaps usually a nickname —

" For that old weather-headed fool, I know how to laugh at him.''

(Congreve, Love for Love, ii. 7.)

Coxhead is another obvious nickname. A careful
analysis of some of the most important medieval
name-lists would furnish hundreds of further ex-
amples, some too outspoken to have survived into
our degenerate age, and others which are now so
corrupted that their original vigour is quite lost.

228 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES

Puns and jokes upon proper names are, face Gregory
the Great and Shakespeare, usually very inept and
stupid ; but the following lines by James Smith, which
may be new to some of my readers, are really clever —

Men once were surnamed from their shape or estate

(You all may from History worm it) ;
There was Lewis the Bulky, and Henry the Great,

John Lackland, and Peter the Hermit.
But now, when the door-plates of Misters and Dames

Are read, each so constantly varies
From the owner's trade, figure, and calling, Surnames

Seem given by the rule of contraries.

Mr. Box, though provoked, never doubles his fist,

Mr. Bums, in his grate, has no fuel ;
Mr. Playfair won't catch me at hazard or whist,

Mr. Coward was wing'd in a duel.
Mr. Wise is a dunce, Mr. King is a whig,

Mr. Coffin's uncommonly sprightly,
And huge Mr. Little broke down in a gig,

While driving fat Mrs. Golightly.

Mrs. Drinkwater's apt to indulge in a dram,

Mrs. Angel's an absolute fury,
And meek Mr. Lyon let fierce Mr. Lamb

Tweak his nose in the lobby of Drury.
At Bath, where the feeble go more than the stout,

(A conduct well worthy of Nero),
Over poor Mr. Lightfoot, confined with the gout,

Mr. Heaviside danced a, Bolero.

Miss Joy, wretched maid, when she chose Mr. Love,

Found nothing but sorrow await her ;
She now holds in wedlock, as true as a dove,

That fondest of mates, Mr. Hayter.
Mr. Oldcastle dwells in a modern-built hut,

Miss Sage is of madcaps the archest ;
Of all the queer bachelors Cupid e'er cut,

Old Mr. Younghusband's the starchest.

SURNAMES GO BY CONTRARIES 229

Mr. Child, in a passion, knock'd down Mr. Rock,

Mr. Stone like an aspen-leaf shivers ;
Miss Poole used to dance, but she stands like a stock

Ever since she became Mrs. Rivers ;
Mr. Swift hobbles onward, no mortal knows how,

He moves as though cords had entwin'd him ;
Mr. Metcalfe ran off, upon meeting a cow,

With pale Mr. Turnbull behind him.

Mr. Barker's as mute as a fish in the sea,

Mr. Miles never moves on a journey ;
Mr. Gotobed sits up till half-after three,

Mr. Makepeace was bred an attorney.
Mr. Gardiner can't tell a flower from a root,

Mr. Wilde with timidity draws back,
Mr. Ryder performs all his journeys on foot,

Mr. Foote all his journeys on horseback.

Mr. Penny, whose father was rolling in wealth,

Kick'd down all his fortune his dad won ;
Large Mr. Le Fever's the picture of health,

Mr. Goodenough is but a bad one.
Mr. Cruickshank stept into three thousand a year.

By showing his leg to an heiress : —
Now I hope you'll acknowledge I've made it quite clear

That surnames ever go by contraries.

INDEX

N.B. — Most surnames have more than one form, many have over a score,
and some have over a hundred. This index, consisting of about 3, 500 names,
will contain twice or thrice as many for the reader who has mastered Ch. Ill,
on sound and spelling. It includes only names still in use.

Abadie, 130
Abbey, 5, 130
Abbott, 5
Abbs, 62, 84
Abdey, 130
A'Beckett, 22
Ablewhite, 112
Aborn, 115
Ackroyd, 1 1 1
Acland, 114, 118
Acomb, 106
A'Court, 22
Acres, 12
Acton, 118
Adams, 84
Adamson, 84
Aday, 84
Adcock, 84
Addey, 84
Addis, 84
Addiscombe, 106
Addison, 84
Adds, 84
Addy, 84
Addyman, 84
Ade, 84
Adeane, iS, 22
Adee, 84
Ades, 84
Adey, 84
Adie, 84
Adkin, 84
Adkinson, 84
Adler, 55
Adnett, 84
Adnitt, 84
Adnot, 84
Ady, 84
Affleck, 30
Agar, 69
Agate, 18, r24
Agnew, 63 n. 1

Aguilar, 172
Ainger, 100
Aitken, 84
Aked, 126
Akenside, 126
Alabaster, 169
Alabone, 35
Alcock, 65
Alcott, 133
Alder, 118
Alderson, 73
Aldred, 72
Aldridge, 72
Aldwin, 73
Aldworth, 123
Algernon, 200
Allard, 81
Allbright, 71
Allbutt, 71
Allchin, 72
Allen, 46
Aliens on, no
Allerton, 119
Alley, 128
Allfrey, 60 n. 1
Allgood, 71, 95
Allman, 97
Allnut, 72
Allsop, 108
Allum, 122
Allvey, 69
Allways, 191
Allwood, 109
Allworthy, 123
Allwright, 72
Almond, 72, 97
Alpe, 219
Alston, 69
Alured, 60 n. 1
Alwin, 46, 72
Amant, 191
Ambler, 200

231

Amery, 80
Ames, 81 -
Amies, 81
Amner, 186
Amor, 20
Amos, 81
Amyas, 100
Anderson, 35, 87
Angel, 135
Anger, 100
Anguish, 99
Angwin, 100
Anker, 167
Annis, 88
Ansell, 39
Anson, 35
Anstey, 94
Anstiss, 94
Applegarth, n, 124
Applegate, 124
Applejohn, 67
Appleyard, n
Applin, 34
Apps, 37
Arber, 153
Arblaster, 169
Arbuckle, 39
Arch, 127
Archbold, 81
Archbutt, 81
Aris, 100
Arkle, 71
Arkwright, 44
Arlett, 193
Arminger, 155
Armitage, 130
Armour, 36, 155
Armstead, 122
Amett, 14, 38
Arrow, 135
Arrowsmith, 169
Arter, 61

232

Arthur, 61
Ascham, 118
Ash, 118
Ashbee, 122
Ashburner, 174
Ashby, 97
Ashdown, 106
Asher, 174
Ashman, 64
Askell, 39
Askwith, 117
Aspinall, 39
Asquith, 117
Astill, 39
Aston, 118
Athill, 23
Atkin, 84
Atkins, 61, 84
Atkinson, 84
Atterbury, 122
Attewell, 22, 104
Atwood, 104
Aubrey, 82
Auden, 73
Auld, 31
Austin, 87
Auty, 14
Aveling, 35
Avenarius, 14 8 «.
Avenel, 207
Avery, 82
Ayliffe, 108
Ayliner, 72
Aylward, 73
Ayre, 195
Ayscough, 107

Bacchus, 83, 132
Back, 125
Bacon, 222
Badcock, 57
Badenough, 106 n.
Badger, 181
Badman, 57
Bagg, 75
Bagshaw, 75
Bagster, 149
Bailey, 45, 183
Bailhache, 205
Bain, 216
Baines, 138
Baker, 148
Balaam, 85
Balderston, 10S
Baldwin, 69
Balestier, 36, 169
Ball, 8
Ballard, 8
Ballister, 169
Banks, 105
Bannerman, 185

INDEX

Bannister, 36, 169
Barclay, 32
Bardell, 69
Barebones, 191
Barfoot, 126 ^
Baring, 71
Barker, 125, 150
Barleycorn, 207
Barnard, 17,1.68
Barnby, 87
Barnes, 132, 194
Barnett, 9, 17, 68
Barnfather, 194
Barnum, 39, 122
Barpfennig, 202
Barr, 124
Barraclough, 48
Barrett, 17

Barringer, 79

Barron, 144

Barrow, 107

Barry, 100

Barter, 155

Bartle, 57

Bartlett, 57, 63

Bartley, 39

Barton, 123

Bartram, 81

Baseley, 87

Bass, 212

Bassett, 212

Bastable, 99

Bastard, 194

Basten, 60 ». 2

Baster, 185

Bastian, 60 n. 2

Batch, 125

Batchelor, 195

Bates, 57

Batt, 38, 57

Batten, 57

Battiscombe, 106

Battle, 197

Bauer, 146

Bawcock, 65

Bawden, 70

Bawtree, 118

Bax, 125

Baxter, 149

Bayard, 215

Bayliss, 45

Baynham, 67

Beach, 116

Beadle, 179

Beadman, 188

Beal, 212

Beamish, 120, 139

Bean, 216

Bear, 217

Bearcroft, 123

Beard, 199

Beater,^i9
Beaton,; 63, 66, 93
Beattie, 93
Beaufoy, 6
Beaumont, 120, 138
Beck, 115, 149
Beckett, 115
Beckwith, 117
Beddoes, 66
Bedward, 66
Bee, 93
Beech, 105
Beecham, 139
Beecher, 174
Beecrdft, 123
Beeforth, 139
Beeman, 64
Beer, 133
Beerbohm, 119
Beeson, 108
Beeston, 108
Beevor, 139
Begg, 213, 216
Belcher, 196
Beldam, 196
Belfield, 139
Bell, 8, 94, 135
Bellamy, 196
Bellasis, 142
Bellchambers, 134
Bellew, 139
Bellinger, 79
Bellows, 132
Benbow, 204
Benn, 75
Benner, 174
Bennett, 46, 85, 166

Benning, 71

Benson, 76, 85

Bensted, 75, 122

Bent, 117

Benyon, 66

Bere, 133

Berman, 180

Bernard, 68

Berner, 81

Berry, 121

Berryman, 121

Bertenshaw, 39

Besant, 202

Best, 217

Bethell, 66

Bethune, 66

Betts, 93

Beverley, 104.

Bevilacqua, 1,90

Bevis, 100

Bewsher, 196

BickerstaSe, 40

Bickersteth, 40, 122

Bicknell, 31

Bidder, 187
Biddle, 179
Biddulph, 53
Bienaim6, 191
Bierbaum, 119
Biggar, 133
Biggins, 38, 133
Biggs, 38, 133
Billiter, 29 ».
Bindloss, 198
Binns, 75
Birch, 118
Birchenough, 106
Bird, 217
Birdseye, 227
Birkbeck, 115
Birkenshaw, 39
Bifkett, 126
Birks, 118
Birnbaum, 119
Birtwistle, 128
Bishop, 144
Black, 213
Blackburn, 116
Blacker, 149
Blackett, 126
Blackledge, 163
Blades, 136
Blagg, 214
Blagrave, 214
Blake, 214
Blaker, 149
Blanchard, 215
Blank, 215
Blaxter, 149
Blazey, 87

Blenkinsop, 27, 39, 108
Blew, 214
Bligh, 211
Bliss, 197
Blomfield, 139
Blood, 66
Bloomer, 153
Bloor, 150
Bloss, 100
Blount, 20, 214
Blow, 214
Blower, 150
Blumenthal, 55
Blundell, 20, 2T4
Blunt, 20, 2,14
Board, 133
Boardman, J33
Bocock, 65
Bode, 74
Boden, 70
Bodger, 149
Bodkin, 70
Body, 70
Bofley, 11
Boffin, 11

INDEX

Boger, 149
Boieldieu, 203
Boileau, 190
Bolt, 211
Bompas, 121
Bona venture, 197
Bond, 71, 146, 177
Bone, 10, 212
Bonham, 122
Bonheur, 191
Bonjour, 191
Bonnamy, 196
Bonner, 33
Bonser, 196
Bontemps, 191
Bonvallet, 145
Bonvarlet, 145
Bonvillain, 145
Booker, 14, 149, 153
Boon, 10, 212
Boorman, 133
Boot, 75
Booth, 133
Booty, 75
Borden, 112
Border, 133 ,
Borough, 121
Borrow, 121
Bosanquet, 51
Bosher, 149
Bostock, 122
Boston, 123
Boswell, 66
Bott, 75
Botting, 75
Bottle, 88, 133
Boulden, 70
Boulter, 154
Bouverie, 51
Bow, 131
Bowden, 70
Bowdler, 173
Bowen, 62
Bower, 133, 168
Bowerrnan, 133
Bowes, 131
Bowie, 216
Bowker, 149
Bowler, 152
Bowmaker, 168
Bowman, 64
Bowser, 196
Bowyer, 168
Boxall, 39
Boyce, 18, 140
Boyd, 216
Boyden, 70
Boyer, 168 ».
Boyes, 18, 140
Brabazon, 100
Bracegirdle, 198,

233

Bracher, 17
Braddock, 118
Bradford, 99
Bradlaugh, 107
Bradley, 104
Bradshaw, no
Bragg, 212
Braid, 31
Braidwood, 109
Braithwaite, 112
Brand, 74
Brandon, 106
Brangwin, 40
Bransom, 36
Branson, 36
Brasher, 17
Brassey, 12
Braund, 74
Brazier, 17
Breakspeare, 204
Brebner, 100
Breitkopf, 126
Brett, 19, 99
Brewer, 17
Brewis, 132
Brewster, 149
Brice, 88
Bridge, 96, 104
Bridgeman, 64, 105
Bridger, 105
Bridges, 100, 104
Briggs, 31
Bright, 28
Brigstocke, 122
Brindejonc, 97
Brinsley, 112
Brinsmead, 112
Briscoe, 107
Bristol, 122
Bristow, 99
Britton, 19, 99
Broadbent, 117
Broadhead, 126
Brock, 225

Brockett, 115, 126, 216
Brockhurst, no
Brockley, 104
Broker, 168
Bromage, 123
Bromet, 126
Bromhead, 126
Brook, 104, 115
Brooker, 168
Brooks, 104
Brough, 121
Brown, 43, 4;
Browning, 71
Brownrigg, 109
Brownsword, 123
Bruce, 66
Brummel, 106

234

Brunei, 37
Bryant, 41
Bubb, 75
Buck, 118
Buckett, 126
Buckhurst, no
Buckland, 114
Buckle, 135
Buckler, 155
Buckmaster, 120
Budd, 75, 135
Buddie, 179
Budworth, 75
Buffery, 51
Bugg," 77
Bull, 5, 24, 135
Bullard, 178
Bulleid, 227
Bullen, roo
Buller, 187
Bullinger, 32, 148
Bullivant, 36
Bulpitt, 127
Bulstrode, no
Bulteel, 49
Bumble, 11
Bumpus, 121
Bunce, 10
Bunker, 1 1
Bunn, 10, 212
Bunyan, 67
Burchett, 126
Burder, 165
Burdon, 198
Burgess, 145
Burgh, 121
Burgin, 99
Burgoyne, 99
Burke, 122
Burman, 133
Burnell, 37, 215
Burnett, 215
Bumup, 108
Burrard, 180
Burrell, 215
Burt, 28
Burward, 180
Bury, 121
Bush, 18, 119
Busher, 149
Busk, 18
Buss, 18
Butcher, 14, 148
Butler, 16
Butlin, 30
Butt, 75, 135
Butter, 220
Butterfield, it2
Button, 75
Butts, 135
Buttress, 131

INDEX

Buzzard, 221
Byatt, 124
Bye, 122
Byers, 133
Bythesea, 104
Bywater, 115

Cable, 88
Cade, 88
Cadman, 12
Caesar, 82
Caffyn, 213
Cain, 85, 141
Caird, 173
Cairn, 106
Cakebread, 156
Calcott, 134
Caldecott, 134
Calf, 223
Callender, 155
Callis, 100
Callow, 220
Calthorp, 122
Calver, 178
Calvert, 178
Calvin, 213
Cameron, 216
Camoys, 11
Camp, 32, 149
Campbell, 216
Campion, 32
Candish, 30
Candler, 17
Cane, 85
Canham, 30
Cannon, 165
Cant, 99
Cantelo, 139
Canter, 166
Cantrell, 166
Capel, 130
Capper, 19
Capron, 198
Carbonell, 207
Care, 150
Carlton, 32
Carnell, 131
Carpenter, 32, 163
Carr, 113
Carrick, 106
Carrington, 101
Carrodus, 32
Carruthers, 32
Carteret, 139
Carthew, 67
Carton, 172
Carver, r86
Casaubon, 51
Case, 94
Cash, 94
Cass, 94

Cassel, 55
Cassell, 132
Casson, 94
Castle, 132
Catchpole, 184
Catherall, 180
Catlin, 32, 36, 88
Cator, 33, 164, 186
Catt, 88
Cattrall, 180
Caudle, 39
Caught, 128
Cauldwell, 39, 129
Caunter, 166
Cayzer, 82, 144
Cazenove, 133
Centlivre, 201
Chadwick, 88
Chaffe, 213
Chalk, 102
Challands, 100
Challen, 100
Challis, 100
Chalmers, 134
Chaloner, 171
Chamberlain, 183
Champain, 99
Champion, 32
Champion de Cres-

pigny, 51
Champness, 20
Champneys, 20, 99
Chance, 197
Chancellor, 32, r83
Chandler, r7, 169, 185
Chaney, 141
Channell, 129
Channen, 165
Chant, 99
Chaplin, 166
Chapman, 23, .168
Chappell, 32, 130
Chappuis, 53
Charity, 197
Charles, 61
Charlton, 32
Charter, 166
Charters, 166
Chase, 124
Chastney, 141
Chater, 164
Chattaway, 128
Chaucer, i7r
Chawner, 171
Chaworth, 100
Chaytor, 33, 164
Cheap, 123
Cheek, 200
Cheese, 156
Cheeseman, 20, 148
Cheetham, 47

Chell, 74
Chenery, 142
Chenevix, 51
Chesney, 141
Chettle, 74
Child, 194
Childers, 166
Chinn, 199
Chinnery, 142
Chipp, 123
Chisholm, 117
Christie, 87
Christmas, 88
Chrystal, 87
Chubb, 32, 85, 226
Chucks, 10
Chumley, 30
Church, 32
Churcher, 131
Churchman, 131
Churchward, 180
Clapp, 149
Clarabutt, 81
Clare, 150

Clark, 19, 32, 47, 163
Clarkson, 147
Clavinger, 155
Clay, 102
Claypole, 116
Cleaver, 152
Cleeve, 108
Clegg, 211
Cleveland, 114
Cleverly, 104
Clew, 108
Cliff, 108
Clift, 108
Clitheroe, 107
Clive, 108
Close, 124
Clougb, 108
Clow, 108
Clowser, T24
Clucas, 66
Coad, 75, 216
Coates, 133
Cobb, 9, 75
Cobbett, 69, 76, 88
Cobbin, 9
Cobbold, 9, 69
Cobham, 75
Cock, 65, 135
Cockayne, 98
Cocker, 187
Cocking, 65
Cocks, 65
Codd, 75
Codlin, 12
Codner, 151
Coe, 218
Coffer, 155

INDEX

Coffin, 213
Coke, 12, 164
Colbeck, 115
Cole, 74
Coleman, 64
Colfox, 225
Collard, 73
Collett, 63, 166
Colley, 22
Collier, 174
Collings, 35, 74
Collins, 3, 22, 63
Colonne, 131
Colt, 51
Coltard, 178
Coltman, 64, r78
Colvin, 73
Combe, 18
Comber, 170
Compton, 106
Comyn, 66
Condy, 129
Conner, 173
Conquest, 197
Constable, 45
Converse, 166
Conyers, 142
Cook, 4
Cookson, 147
Coombes, 18
Cooper, 44, 45
Cope, 107
Copeman, 168
Copp, 107
Copperwheat, 112
Coppin, 9
Copping, 63
Cordeaux, 12
Corderoy, 135
Cordery, 135
Cordner, 151
Corker, 152
Corneille, 204
Comer, 154
Cornish, 24, 96
Cornwallis, 19, 24, 96
Corrie, 134
Corser, 151
Cosser, 151
Cossey, 128
Coster, 182
Cosway, 128
Cotman, 133
Cotter, 133
Cotterill, 133
Cotton, 134
Cottrell, 133
Couch, 216
Court, 128
Courtenay, 7
Courtney, 7

235

Courvoisier, 151
Cousins, 193
Cover, 45, 155
Cowan, 54
Coward, 10, 178
Cowdery, 141
Cowdrey, 141
Cowper, 44
Cowperthwaite, 112
Cox, 65
Coxall, 99
Coxhead, 227
Coy, 211
Cozens, 193
Cracknell, 156
Cradock, 78
Craft, 123
Cragg, 106
Craig, 106
Cramer, 181
Cranmer, 116
Crashaw, no
Craske, 212
Craven, 10
Crawcour, 206
Creagh, 106
Crease, 212
Creasey, 212
Creed, 197
Cremer, 181
Crewdson, 88
Crick, 115
Cripps, 37
Crisp, 37
Crocker, r74
Crockett, 198
Croft, 123
Croker, 174
Crombie, 212
Crook, 117, 211
Crosier, 166
Cross, 17
Crosskeys, 79, 135
Crouch, 17
Croucher, 17
Crouse, 212
Crowe, 218
Crowfoot, 227
Crowne, 135
Crowninshield, 135
Crowther, 161
Crozier, 135, 166
Cruden, 88
Cruikshank, 211
Crum, 24, 21 r
Crump, 24, 211
Cubitt, 29, 88
Cuff, 75

Cullen, 57 ft., 100
Cullum, 122
Culpepper, 205

236

Culver, 220
Culverhouse, 220
Cumming, 66
Cunditt, 129
Cundy, 129
Cunliffe, 108
Cupples, 69 ».
Curnow, 96
Currer, 154
Currie, 134
Curry, 134
Curryer, 154
Curtis, 211
Curzon, n
Cuss, 193
Cussens, 193
Cust, 95
Custance, 95
Cutbush, 205
Cutlack, 32
Cutler, 96, 172
Cutts, 88
Cuvier, 45

Dabbs, 31, 62
Dabney, 16, 100, 138
Daft, 47
Daintree, 30
Dainty, 30
Daisy, 97
Dakin, 165
Dalbiac, 51
Dale, 106
Dallaway, 128
Dallison, 38, 100
Dallman, 100
Dalmain, 100
Dalziel, 29
Dampier, 138
Dance, 10, 85
Dancock, 85
Dane, 98
Danger, 100
Dangerfield, 139
Danks, 38
Dann, 85
Dannatt, 85
Danvers, 16, 100
Darbishire, 97
Darblay, 141
Darby, 32
Darcy, 101
Darmsteter, 55
Darwen, 115
Darwin, 73
Dasent, 212
Daubeney, 16, 100,

138
Davies, 43
Daw, 218
Dawbarn, 63 ». 1

INDEX

Dawe, 57
Dawkes, 63
Dawkins, 63
Dawnay, 141
Day, 57, 177
Deacon, 165
Deakin, 115
Dean, 22, 112, 165
Dear, 190, 211
Dearlove, 36, 69
Death, 101
Dedman, 64
Dee, 115
Deedes, 75
Deemer, 184
Deer, 211
De Foe, 141
Dekker, 173
Delamere, 12
Delane, 51
Delapole, 12
Delaware, 129
Dell, 106
Delmar, 12
Delves, 125
Demange, 90
Dempster, 184
Dench, 97
Dendy, 87
Dene, 22, 112
Denison, 145
Denman, 112
Denne, 22, 112
Dennett, 82
Dennis, 82, 98
Denny, 82
Dentry, 30
Denyer, 112
Depledge, 163
Dering, 71
Derrick, 81
Derwent, 115
Devenish, 96
Devereux, 100
Devey, 212
Deville, 86
Dew, 101
Dexter, 18, 170
Diamond, 9
Dibb, 14
Dibble, 14
Dibden, 112
Dick, 62
Dickens, 20
Dicker, 125
Dickman, 105, 125
Dickson, 29
Dieudonne, 117
Dieuleveut, 203
Dieumegard, 203
Diggs, 32, 63

Dike, 125
Dimanche, 90
Dimond, 9
Diplock, 197
Diprose, 140
Disney, 100
Dix, 32
Dixon, 29
Dobb, 62
Dobell, 94
Dobree, 141
Dodd, 75
Doddridge, 109
Dodge, 60
Dodsley, 75
Dodson, 62, 75, 76
Doe, 223
Dogood, 204
Dolittle, 204
Doleman, 100
Doll, 139
Dolley, 101
Dollman, 100
Dollond, 51
Dolphin, 227
Dombey, 212
Donne, 106
Doon, 80
Double, 14
Doubtnre, 207
Douch, 7, 57, 98
Doudney, 117
Doutrepont, 104
Dove, 220
Dow, 57, 216
Dowd, 75
Dowe, 223
Down, 75, 76, 106
Downing, 106
Dowson, 57
Doyle, 101
D'Oyley, 101
Drake, 217
Dreng, 145
Drew, 53, 81
Drewett, 53
Drewry, 195
Dring, 74, 145
Drinkwater, 190
Druce, 81, 100
Druitt, 53, 81
Drury, 195
Dry, 191
Dubois, 45
Ducat, 145
Duck, 144
Duckett, 144
Dudeney, 117
Duff, 216, 220
Duffus, 132
Dufour, 134

Duke, 144
Duncalfe, 223
Dunn, 75, 76, 106, 214
Dunning, 71
Dunnock, 219
Dunstan, 69
Dupont, 43
Dupre, 45
Dupuy, 140
Durand, 43, 51
Durbeyfield, 139
Durfey, 101
Diirr, 191
Durrant, 81
Durward, 180
Dutt, 75
Dutton, 75
Dye, 83
Dyer, 18, 163
Dyke, 125
Dyson, 32, 83
Dyter, 18, 170
Dyster, 170

Eade, 75
Eady, 60
Eames, 193
Earl, 5, 74, 144
Earnshaw, 39, no
Earwaker, 69
Easter, 89
Eastman, 72
Ebbs, 75, 76, 94
Ebbsworth, 75, 123
Eccles, 120
Ede, 60
Edelstein, 55
Eden, 60
Edens, 94
Edes, 75
Edge, 126
Edison, 60
Edkins, 60
Edmondstone, 108
Edridge, 73
Edwards, 46
Eeles, 226
Egg, 31
Elder,. 1 18
Elgar, 69
Elgood, 71, 95
Ellershaw, 119
Elliott, 63, 85
Ellis, 85
Elmer, 72, 174
Elphick, 72
Elvey, 69
Elvin, 72
Elwin, 72
Elwood, 109

INDEX

Ely, 81
Emerson, 95
Emery, 80
Emmett, 95
Empson, 95, 193
England, 98, 117
English, 96
Ensor, 30
Entwistle, 128
Epps, 75, 76, 94
Esmond, 72
Evans, 43
Eve, 90

Everett, 17, 71, 124
Evershed, 126
Every, 80
Ewan, 38
Ewart, 178
Ewens, 38
Ewer, 186
Eye, 117
Eyre, 195

Faber, 18, 105 ».
Fabricius, 148 ».
Facey, 34
Failes, 141
Fair, 152 n.
Fairbairn, 194
Fairburn, 194
Faircloth, 108
Fairclough, 108
Fairfax, 20, 214
Falcon, 135
Falconer, 182
Fall, 91

Fallows, vi, 192
Falstaff, 73
Fanner, 31
Faraday, 177
Farebrother, 196
Farrant, 81
Farrar, 172
Farthing, 202
Faulkner, 182
Faunt, 146
Fauntleroy, 146
Fawcett, 126
Fawkes, 82
Fay, 141
Feare, 211
Fearenside, 126
Fearon, 15, 171
Featherstonhaugh, 116
Feaver, 18, 171
Feaveryear, 72 n.
Fell, 106
Fellows, 192
Fender, 34
Fenimore, 36, 113
Fennell, 128

237

Fenner, 31, 177
Fermor, 148
Ferrers, 38, 138
Ferrier, 172
Ferris, 38, 61
Ferry, 61
Feulard, 203
Fevyer, 18
Fewkes, 61
Fewster, 174
Ffoulkes, 30
Ffrench, 30
Field, 104, 112
Fiennes, 139
Filkins, 87
Filmer, 73
Finn, 216
Finnemore, 36
Firebrace, 80
Firminger, 20, 35, 148
Firth, 116
Fish, 217
Fishwick, 123
Fisk, 217
Fitch, 196, 225
Fitchett, 225
Fitchew, 225
Fitz, 196
Fiveash, 141
Flack, 114
Fladgate, 124
Flanner, 169
Flaxman, 170
Fleck, 220
Fleet, 115
Fleischer, 150
Fleischmann,}..i 50
Fleming, 120
Fletcher, 150, 186
Flick, 220
Flinders, 33, 100
Flood, 67, 115
Flower, 169
Flowerdew, 146
Floyd, 67
Foakes, 61
Foat, 126
Fogg, 75
Foljambe, 212
Folkard, 69
Follett, 212
Folley, 133
Folliott, 212
Fonblanque, 51
Foot, 125
Foottet, 126
Forcett, 126
Ford, 102, 117
Forester, 175
Forster, 175
Forth, 117

238

Fosbrooke, 125
Fosdike, 125
Fosse, 125
Fossett, 126
Foster, 38, 175
Fothergill, 109
Foulds, 105, 124
Fowell, 24, 217
Fowkes, 61
Fowler, 24, 165
Fox, 61, 225
Foy, 141
France, 97
Francis, 96
Frankham, 122
Franklin, 145
Freake, 210
Frean, 141
Free, 74
Freebairn, 145
Freeborn, 145
Freeney, 141
French, 96
Frere, 163
Frewin, 73
Frick, 210
Friend, 192
Fripp, 40
Frith, 116, 124
Frobisher, 173
Froude, 74
Fry, 28 -
Fryer, 163
Fulcher, 69, 74
Fullalove, 207
Fuller, 170
Furber, ^73
Furneaux, 138
Furner, 148
Furn'ess, 134
Furnival, 139
Furze, 119

Gabb, 88
Gabbett, 88
Gable, 88
Gale, 134
Galer, 184
Gales, 135
Galilee, 130
Galley, 130
Gallon, 33
Galpin, 82
Gait, 222
Gambier, 51
Gamble, 35
Game, 124
Gander, 196
Gansauge, 227
Ganter, 171
Gapp, 48

INDEX

Garbett, 73
Garden, 124
Gardiner, 29
Garfield, 124
Gargery, 37
Garibaldi, 73
Garland, 225
Garlick, 155, 191
Garment, 72
Garner, 81, 154
Garnett, 80
Garnham, 122, 200
Garrard, 17, 32, 73
Garrett, 17, 73
Garrick, 51, 141
Garrison, 17
Garside, 124
Garth, 124
Gascoyne, 99
Gaskell, 109
Gaskin, 99
Gate, 185
Gates, 124
Garth, 38
Gathercole, 205
Gathergood, 204
Gatliff, 73
Gatling, 32
Gatty, 38
Gaukroger, 60
Gaunt, 100
Gaunter, 171
Gauntlett, 135
Gavin, 79
Gaylard, 213
Gaylor, 184
Gaylord, 213
Gaynor, 79
Geary, 79
Gedge, 212
Geldard, 178
Gell, 33
Gem, 60
Gender, 196
Genever, 79
Genn, 79
Gent, 213
George, 61
Gepp, 61
German, 4
Gerring, 80
Gerrish, 211
Gibbins, 62
Gibbon, 62, 63
Gibbs, 62
Giblett, 12, 62
Gibson, 62
Gifkins, 63
Gilbey, 62
Gilchrist, 67
Gildea, 67

Gildersleeve, 199
Gilham, 59
Gilkes, 38
Gill, 25, 33, 108
Gillespie, 67
Gillett, 63
Gillies, 67
Gilliver, 79
Gilman, 59
Gilmour, 67
Gilpin, 62
Gilroy, 67
Gimson, 60
Ginder, 196
Ginger, 155
Ginn, 79
Ginner, 148
Gipps, 32, 62
Glaisher, 174
Glascock, 40
Glascott, 40
Glass, 216
Glasspool, 116
Glazebrook, 36, 115
Gleed, 221
Glegg, 211
Glen, 106
Gloster, 19
Gliick, 191
Gluckstein, 35
Glynn, 106
Goad, 86
Goater, 178
Godbehere, 72, 203
Godber, 72
Goddard, 73, 178
Godliman, 64
Gofi, 216
Gold, 4
Goldberg, 55
Goldenkrantz, 55
Golding, 39
Goldmann, 55
Goldsmith, 15, 54
Goldwin, 39
Golightly, 206
Gooch, 216
Good, 4, 74
Goodacre, 112
Goodair, 72
Goodale, 156
Goodbairn, 194
Goodban, 194
Goodbeer, 72, 156
Goodburn, 194
Goodchild, 36, 74
Goodday, 191
Goodenough, 106
Goodeve, 69, 70
Goodfellow, 190, 196
Goodhart, 12

Goodhew, 60
Goodhue, 60
Goodier, 72
Gooding, 39
Goodlake, 32, 69
Goodliffe, 73, 108
Goodluck, 69, 197
Goodman, 64
Goodrich, 60, 70
Goodrick, 60
Goodson, 196
Goodwin, 39
Goodyear, 72
Gore, 113
Gorman, 72
Gorst, 10, 119
Gosling, 10, 32
Goss, 10
Gosselin, 10
Gosset, 10
Gossip, 196
Gotobed, 72, 206
Gott, 129
Gottbehut, 203
Gotthelf, 203
Gough, 48, 116
Goujon, 226
Gow, 173
Grace, 119, 212
Gracedieu, 203
Graindorge, 207
Grammer, 155
Grange, 132
Granger, 132
Grant, 66, 212
Granville, 139
Grattepaille, 206
Graves, no
Gray, 225
Grayson, 147
Grazebrook, 36
Greatorex, 109
Greaves, no
Green, 45
Greenall, ri6,
Greenaway, 35, 128
Greenfield, 139
Greenhalgh, 116
Greenhow, 106
Greenidge, 123
Greening, 117
Greenish, 39
Greenman, 132
Greenstreet, 120
Gregson, 57
Grenfell, 106
Grenville, 139
Greville, 139
Grew, 2^0
Grice, 222
Grier, 57

INDEX

Grieve, 181
Grieves, 147
Griffin, 217
Grimes, 74
Grimsdick, 125
Grimwade, 117
Grindrod, 35, nr
Groser, 151
Gross, 213
GrossetSte, 126
Grossmith, 44
Grosvenor, 185
Grote, 213
Grove, no
Grubbe, 50
Grundy, 37, 69
Gubbins, 124 n.
Gudgeon, 226
Guest, 192.
Gulliver, 79
Gundry, 37, 69
Gunn, 74
Gunnell, 73
Gunner, 73
Gunning, 39, 7r
Gunston, 123
Gunter, 72
Gunwin, 39
Gurney, 138
Gutbier, 156
Gutch, 116
Gutentag, 191
Guthrie, 7
Gutjahr, 72
Gutteridge, 70
Gwynne, 15, 216

Hack, 74, in
Hackett, 74
Hacking, in
Haddock, 226
Haggard, 81, 221
Haggett, 81
Haig, 21, 124
Haigh, 21, 124
Hailstone, 108
Haines, 73
Hake, 226
Haldane, 73
Hale, 21, 45, 116
Hales, 21, 45
Halfpenny, 202
Hall, 4, 21, 45, 131
Hallett, 37
Halliday, 89
Halliwell, 129
Hallmark, 202
Halse, 119
Halsey, 119
Ham, 122
Hamblin, 35

239

Hambro, 100
Hamburg, 55
Hamlet, 12, 37, 62
Hamlin, 35
Hammant, 35
Hammond, 35, 74
Hamnett, 36
Hamper, 173
Hampshire, 98
Hancock, 2
Hand, 3
Hands, 3
Handyside, 126
Hann, 3
Hannibal, 82
Hanrott, 38
Hansell, 39
Hansom, 3, 36, 101
Hanson, 3, 36
Hanway, 100
Harbord, 32
Harbottle, 133
Harcourt, 139
Hardaker, 112
Harding, 39
Hardisty, 124
Hardwin, 39
Hargreave, 1 10
Harlow, 107
Harman, 64, 72
Harmsworth, 123
Harness, 81
Harnett, 14, 38
Harold, 69
Harrap, 108
Harris, 38, 46
Harrison, 38, 47
Harrod, 69
Hart, 54, 135
Hartopp, 108
Harvard, 72
Harvest, 90
Harvey, 57
Harward, 72, 180
Harwood, 109
Hasler, 185
Hasluck, 204
Hastings, 73
Hatch, 124
Hatchard, 81
Hatchett, 81, 124
Hathaway, 35, 128
Hatt, 135
Hatton, 136
Haupt, 126
Havelock, 69
Haw, 124
Haward, 180
Haweis, 94
Hawes, 21, 116, 124
Hawke, 218

240

Hawker, 182
Hawkes, 38, 63
Hawkins, 37, 63
Hawley, 104
Hawtrey, 138
Hay, 21, 124
Haybittle, 180
Haycock, 124
Haycraft, 123
Hayday, 89
Hayes, 21, 105, 124
Hay man, 180
Hay ward, 180'
Haywood, 109
Hazel, 119
Hazelrigg, 109
Hazeldean, 112
Hazlitt, 126
Head, 25, 125
Heal, 116
Healey, 82
Heard, 32
Hearne, 127
Hearnshaw, 39, no,

219
Heaven, 38
Heaviside, 126
Hebblethwaite, 112
Hedgcock, 124
Hedge, 21, 124
Hedgecoe, 218
Hedges, 21
Hellier, 173
Hemming, 71
Henderson, 35
Hendry, 34
Hendy, 211
Henery, 34
Henfrey, 82
Hensman, 186
Henson, 35
Henty, 211
Herald, 69, 185
Herbert, 73
Herd, 32
Hermitage, 130
Heme, 127, 219
Heron, 219
Herrick, 73
Herries, 12
Herring, 227
Hertslet, 112
Heseltine, 112
Heslop, 108
Hester, 89
Hew, 59
Hewens, 38
Hewett, 59
Hewlett, 59, 62
Hexter, 38
Hey, 124

INDEX

Hibbert, 73, 74
Hick, 62
Hickman, 3, 64
Hickmott, 195
Hide, 125

Higginbottom, 77, 114
Higgs, 63
Hildyard, 73
Hill, 23, 45, 96, 106
Hillard, 173
Hillman, 105
Hilly ard, 173
Hillyer, 173
Hind, 35, 177, 223
Hine, 35, 177
Hinks, 222
Hinxman, 186
Hird, 32
Hirsch, 55
Hirst, no
Hitch, 63
Hitchcock, 65
Hoar, 214
Hobart, 73

Hobbs, 24, 32, 35, 62
Hobday, 89
Hobson, 24
Hockaday,' 89
Hockin, 37
Hodder, 21
Hodge, 60
Hodson, 62
Hoe, 116
Hogarth, 124
Hogg, 190, 222
Hoggart, 178
Hogsflesh, 157
Holbrook, 115
Holder, 146
Hole, 109
Holiday, 89
Holinshed, 118
Holl, 109
Holland, 98
Holliman, 6, 197
Hollings, 118
Hollingshead, 118
Hollins, 118
Hollis, 118
Holliwell, 129
Hollowell, 129
Holm, 117
Holman, 9, 117
Holmer, 117
Holmes, 117, 118
Holt, 109
Holtum, 122
Holyland, 98
Holyoak, 61
Homan, 64, 116
Homburger, 55

Home, 38, 117
Homer, 83, 117
Homewood, 118
Hone, 108
Honeyball, 76, 82
Hoo, 116
Hood, 198
Hook, 116
Hooker, 116
Hoole, 109
Hooman, 116
Hope, 108
Hopkins, 24, 35, 62
Hopper, 165
Hopps, 32, 35, 62
Horlock, 198, 2r4
Home, 135
Horner, 169
Horniblow, 205
Horniman, 35
Horridge, 39
Hose, I3r
Hoskins, 38
Hostler, 165
Houchin, 59
Hough, 106
House, 9, 97, 131
How, 9, 59, 106
Howard, 180
Howes, 9
Howitt, 59
Howlett, 59, 221
Hoyle, 109
Hozier, I7r
Hubbard, 73
Hudson, 3, 75
Huggins, 59
Hughes, '46
Huish, 125
Hull, 23, 106
Hulme, 117
Humber,-~?i5
Hume, 117
Humfrey, 60
Hunt, 148
Hunter, 149
Hurd, 32
Hurlbatt, 204
Hum, 127
Hurst, no
Husband, 177
Hussey, 141
Hustler, 165
Hutchins, 59
Hutson, 35
Huxtable, 123
Hyatt, 124
Hyde, 125

Ibbott, 94
Ibbotson, 94

Iddins, 94
Iddison, 94
Ide, 94
Iden, 94
Image, 135
Imray, 80
Ind, 126
Ing, 117
Ingall, 117
Inge, 75, 117
Ingle, 117
Inglis, 96
Ingoldby, 117
Ingram, 73, 82
Ings, 117
Inkpen, 135
Inman, 165
Inward, 28
Inwood, 28
Ireland, 24, 97
Iremonger, 170 .
Ironmonger, 170
Isard, 79
Isemonger, 170
Isitt, 79
Ivatts, 80
Ives, 80
Ivimey, 196
Ivison, 80
Ivory, 80
Izod, 79
Izzard, 79

Jackson, 47
Jaggard, 182
J agger, 182
J ago, 60
Jalland, 33
James, 46
Janaway, 100
Janes, 100
Janvier, 91
Janways, 100
Jardine, 29
Jarman, 4
Jarrold, 32, 73
Jarvis, 32, 87
Jeakes, 60
Jebb, 61
Jeffcock, 40
Jeffcott, 29, 40
Jellicoe, 37
Jemmett, 60
Jenkins, 38
Jenks, 38
Jenner, 33, 148
Jennifer, 79
Jennings, 25, 35, 63
Jenoure, 33, 148
Jephcott, 29,
Jepson, 61

17

INDEX

Jermyn, 4
Jemingham, 122
Jerram, 87
Jessop, 85
Jewett, 25
Jewhurst, 125
Jewsbury, 125
J ex, 60
Jinks, 38
Jobling, 71, 85
Jobson, 85
Johnson, 25, 47
Johnston, 108
Jolland, 33
Jolliffe, 212
Jones, 25
Jordan, 58
Joslin, 32
Jowett, 25
Joy, 25
Joyce, 94
Jubb, 32
Judd, 58
Judge, 184
Judkins, 58
Judson, 58, 184
Jukes, 38, 58
Jull, 33
Junior, 145
Juniper, 79
Jupp, 32, 85
Jury, 125
Justice, 184
Juxon, 184

Kain, 85
Kaines, 141
Kalbfleisch, 157
Karslake, 37
Katt, 224
Kay, 79
Reach, 25
Keble, 69 n.
Kedge, 212
Keep, 132
Kell, 74
Kelsey, 74
Kemble, 69
Kemp, 74, 149
Kempster, 170 .
Ken, 224 " .

Kennard, 72
Kennedy, 216
Kennett, 224
Kenney, 141
Kenrick, 73
Kerr, 113, 224
Ketch, 25, 212
Kettle, 74
Kew, 5

241

Key, 79, 129, 136
Keylock, 129
Keynes, 141 n.
Keys, 79
Kibbles, 69 n.
Kiddell, 144
Kidder, 181
Kiddier, 181
Kidger, 148
Kidney, 200
Killick, 123
Killip, 66
Kilner, 25, 164
Kimball, 69
Kimber, 170
King, si, 47, 144
Kingdom, 106
Kingdon, 106
Kingscote, 133
Kingson, 146
Kingston, 146
Kipping, 71
Kipps, 32
Kirk, 32
Kirkbride, 88
Kirker, 131
Kirkman, 131
Kirkus, 132
Kisser, 152
Kitchin, 134
Kitching, 35
Kite, 74
Kitson, 95
Kittermaster, 120
Knapp, 107
Knapper, 107
Knatchbull, 206
Knight, 145
Knoblauch, 155, 191
Knock, 107
Knocker, 107
Knollys, 29, 107
Knott, 16, 30, 107,

108, 219
Knowler, 167
Knowles, 29, 107
Knowlson, 30
Knox, 108
Kopf, 126
Krummbein, 211

Labiche, 223
Labouchere, 149
Lacey, 4
Lack, 116
Lade, 129
Ladyman, 64
Laird, 145
Lake, 104, 1.16. ,.'.
Lakeman, 64
Lamb, 63 ». 2, 135

242

Lambard, ioo
Lambert, 73, 74
Lambie, 63
Lammas, 89
Lammiter, 201
La Monnaie, 165
Lamoureux, 191
Lamprey, 226
Lance, 79
Lancelot, 79
Lander, 186
Laner, 170
Lang, 31

Langbain, 13S n.
Langlois, 96
Langtoft, 108
Langworthy, 123
Lankester, 97
Lankshear, 99
Lanyon, 67
Lardner, 186
Larkin, 58
Larned, 32, 191
Larpent, 12
Lasalle, 45, 131
Lateward, 180
Latham, 132
Latimer, 172
Latner, 172
Launder, 186
Lavender, 186
Law, 58, 107
Lawless, 198
Lawman, 64
Lawrie, 225
Lawson, 58
Lay, 28, 58
Layard, 51
Laycock, 58
Layman, 64
Lea, 28
Leach, 163
Leadbeater, 173
Leadbitter, 173
Leader, 178
Leaf, 74, 211
Leaper, 152, 165
Learoyd, in
Leatham, 132
Leather, 107
Leatherbarrow, 107
Leathes, 132
Lebceuf, 223
Lechien, 224
Ledger, 81
Lediard, 81
Ledieu, 8(5
Lee, 28, 45, 54, 102
Leech, 163
Leete, 129
Lefanu, 51

INDEX

Lefilleul, 196
Lefroy, 51
Leggatt, 166
Legge, 28, 81
Legh, 28
Lehideux, 191
Leicester, 19
Leif, 74
Leif child, 71
Leigh, 28
Lekain. 224
Lemaitre, 12
Leman, 194
Lemon, 73, 194
Lempriere, 144
Lenain, 210
Lennard, 221
Lent, 90
Leppard, 217
Lequeux, 5
Lequien, 224
Lermitte, 167
Lesec, igi
Lesley, 6
Lester, 19
Lestrange, 12
Lesturgeon, 226
Lesueur, 151
Letellier, 45
Letts, 94
Lettson, 94
Lever, 223
Leverett, 223
Leveridge, 73
Leverson, 223
Lcveson, 223
Levick, 33, 144
Levrault, 223
Lewes, 46
Lewin, 72
Lewis, 46, 54
Ley, 28
Liberty, 123
Lidgate, 124
Lidgett, 124
Lidley, 51
Liebevoll, 207
Light, 210
Lightfoot, 126
Lightwood, 210
Ligonier, 51
Lilburne, 6
Lilienfeld, 55
Lilley, 136
Lilly white, 81
Linacre, 112
Lind, 118
Lindley, 118
Lines, 118
Ling, 119
Linnell, 79

Lister, 166, 170
Little, 210
Littleboy, 191
Littlechild, 195
Littler air, 193
Littlejohn, 59
Littlepage, 93
Littleproud, 123
Littleworth, 123
Littre, 32
Livingston, 108
Lloyd, 48, 216
Loader, 178
Lock, 129
Lockhart, 7
Lockyer, 148
Locock, 58
Lodge, 133
Loftus, 132
Lombard, 100
Loney, 34
Long, 2
Longfellow, 101
Longman, 64
Longstaff, 198
Looker, 179
Lord, 145

Lorimer, 172

Loriner, 172

Loring, 100

Lorkin, 58

Love, 197

Loveday, 89

Lovejoy, 204

Lovelace, 198

Loveless, 198

Lovell, 197

Lovelock, 198

Lover, 191

Loveridge, 73

Lovett, 197

Lovibond, 198

Loving, 100

Low, 17, 58, 107

Lowe, 54

Lowe, 55

Lowell, 197

Lowndes, 113

Lowrie, 225

Lowson, 58

Luard, 51

Lubbock, 100

Lucas, 87

Luck, 87, 00, lgr
197

Luckett, 87

Luckner, 100

Lucock, 87

Luff, 197

Lufkin, 197

Lugard, 73

Luker, 179
Lund, 113
Lunn, u 3
Lush, 185
Lusher, 184
Lusk, 192
Luter, 224
Lutterer, 224
Luttrel, 223
Lye, 28
Lyell, 79
Lynch, 127
Lyndhurst, 118
Lynes, 118
Lynn, 106
Lyon, 135
Lyons, 54
Lyte, 210

Mabbs, 3
Macey, 59
Machin, 59
Macllroy, 67
Mackenzie, 29
Maclean, 67
Macnab, 66
Macpherson, 66
Maddox, 78
Maggot, 93
Mahood, 93
Maidment, 7s
Mainprice, 185
Mainwaring, 27, 42, 142
Mair, 184
Major, 184
Makepeace, 204
Makins, 86
Malapert, 191
Malcolm, 67
Malesherbes, 119
Malherbe, 119
Malins, 100
Malleson, 37, 93
Malpas, 121
Malthus, 132
Maltravers, 121
Mangles, 69
Mann, 64, 177, 192
Mannering, 30, 142
Manning, 71
Mansell, 99
Manser, 82
Manton, 4
Maple, 119
Mapleson, 3
Mappin, 3
Mapple, 119
March, 86, 90
Marchant, 23, 32. i fi 3
Marchbanks, 30
Margetts, 93

INDEX

Marillier, 167
Marner, 164
Marratt, 23
Marriage, 197
Marriott, 63
Marris, 113
Marrott, 23, 93
Marryat, 63
Mars, 91
Marsh, 104, 113
Marshall, 45, 183
Martin, 46
Martineau, 51
Martyr, 86
Mash, 38
Maskell, 183
Mason, 86
Massie, 59

Massinger, 20, 35, 18,
Masson, 59
Master, 192
Masterman, 192
Masters, 12, 192
Mather, 177
Matheson, 86
Mattison, 95
Maud, 93
Mauger, 184
Mauleverer, 139
Maunder, 187
Mawer, 177
Mawson, 24, 93
May, 65, 86, 90, 195
Maycock, 65
Mayes, 86
Mayhew, 86
Maynard, 73
Mayne, 99*
Mayo, 86
Mayor, 184
Mayston, 99
Meacock, 65
Mead, 112
Meadowcroft, 124
Meadows, 104
Meakin, 86
Mears, 12, 104, 116
Meaty ard, 136
Medd, 112
Medley, 198
Medlicott, rg8
Medward, 180
Medway, 115
Mee, 65, 86
Mees, 142
Meese, 142
Meeson, 86
Meggitt, 93
Meiklejohn, 59
Melancthon, 150 ».
Meller, 164

243

Mellers, 147
Mellor, 25, 164
Mellsop, 195
Melton, 3r
Melville, 139
Menzies, 29
Mercator, 148 n.
Mercer, r6g
Merrick, 33
Merrill, 215 ». 1
Merryweather, 191
Messer, 177
Metcalf, 223
Metzger, 150
Mew, 134
Mewer, 150
Mews, 134
Meyer, 43
Meynell, 142
Miall, 88
Mickle, 46, 210
Middlemas, 40, 89
Midwinter, 23, 89
Mildmay, 195
Miles, 80
MU1, 80

Millard, 39, 180
Miller, 25
Millett, 80
Milne, 25
Milner, 25, 164
Milsom, 36
Milson, 36
Milton, 3r
Milward, 180
Minet, 50
Minister, 35, 120
Minter, 173
Mitchell, 46, 88
Moate, 125
Mobbs, 3
Mollison, i7, 93
Molyneux, 12
Momerie, 12
Mompesson, 139
Money, 165
Moneypenny, 201
Monier, 173
Monk, 163
Monks, 147
Monkton, 123
Montmorency, 139
Montresor, 139
Moody, 208
Moodyman, 5
Moon, 165
Moore, 2, 45, 98, 113

216
Moorman, 113
Morant, 81
Mordaunt, 212

244

Mordue, 203
Morel, 215
Morgan, 46
Morley, 101
Morris, 46, 93, 98
Morrison, 93
Morrow, 90
Morshead, 126
Mortimer, 139
Mortlock, 197
Moss, 85, ir3
Mossman, 113
Motley, 198
Mott, 93, 125
Mould, 93
Moule, 93
Mowbray, 12, 139
Moxon, 93
Moyes, 85
Muddiman, 5
Mudie, 208
Miihsam, 207
Muir, 113, 150
Muirhead, 113
Mulholland, 67
Miiller, 43
Mullett, 136
Mulliner, 178
Mullins, 12, 132
Mummery, 12
Munday, 89
Munn, 34, 165
Murch, 210
Murgatroyd, 48, 111
Murray, 215
Murrell, 215
Mushet, 221
Muskett, 221
Musson, 219
Musters, 131
Mutch, 210
Mutton, 157, 223
Myers, 54, 104

Nabbs, 62, 84
Nalder, 34
Nangle, 34
Napier, 6, 186
Napper, 173
Nash, 34, 105
Nasmyth, 44
Naylor, 44, 153
Neal, 79
Neame, 82, 193
Neander, 150 n.
Neate, 88
Neave, 194
Neil, 79
Neild, 35
Neilson, 26
Neish, 212

INDEX

Nelms, 34
Nelson, 26, 95
Nend, 34
Nethersole, 116
Nettlefold, 105, 124
Nevill, 138
Nevinson, 194
Nevison, 194
Newall, 39
Newbigging, 21, 133
Newbolt, 133
Newbould, 133
Newcomb, 22, 106
Newhouse, 21
Newman, 22
Newnham, 122
Nightgall, 12
Nightingale, 218
Nind, 34, 126
Nobbs, 62
Nock, 34
Noel, 89
Nokes, 34, 105
Noon, 90
Norcott, 133
Norgate, 128
Norman, 97
Norris, 20, 97, 185
Norwood, 109
Nott, 16, 30, 108, 210
Nowell, 89
Nugent, 138
Nunn, 74, 162
Nurse, 20, 185
Nutt, 108
Nutter, 178
Nye, 34, 117

Oak, 118
Oakley, 103
Oakshott, no, 165
Oates, 63, 79
Oddy', 63
Odgers, 80
Offer, 15
Ogden, 118
Oliphant, 217
Oliver, 79
Oilier, 80
Olver, 80
Onion, 48, 67
Onions, 67
Orbell, 81
Orchardson, 125
Orme, 71
Ormerod, in
Osbert, 69
Osborne, 4, 69
Oscroft, 124
Osgood, 69
Osier, 165

Otter, 74
Otterburn, 116
Otto way, 128
Otway, 128
Ovens, 134
Over, 116
Overall, 116
Overbury, 116
Overend, 116, 126
Overland, 116

Pace, 89
Pack, 89
Packard, 33
Packer, 23
Packman, 182
Padgett, 89, 93
Paget, 93
Painblanc, 156
Painchaud, 156
Painleve, 156
Paintendre, 156
Pakeman, 182
Palairet, 51
Palliser, 181
Pallister, 181
Palmer, 15, 167
Palsgrave, 145
Pancoast, 89
Pankhurst, 89
Pankridge, 109
Pannell, 4, 38
Panter, 186
Pan tier, 186
Paramore, 194
Pardoe, 203
Pardon, 163
Parfitt, 29
Pargeter, 175
Paris, 15
Parish, 15, 123
Park, 32
Parker, 23, 181
Parkins, 32
Parkinson, 6
Parkman, 105
Parks, 32

Parmenter, 44, 170
Parminter, 171
Parmiter, 171
Parnell, 94
Parr, 32
Parris, 15
Parrott, 32
Parry, 32, 38
Parsons, 147
Partout, 191
Pascall, 89
Pascoe, 89
Pash, 89
Pask, 89

INDEX

245

Patch, 89, 187
Patchett, 89
Paternoster, 155
Paterson, 38
Paton, 38, 6$
Pattison, 38
Pauncefote, 201
Pawling, 87
Pawson, 87
Paxman, 182
Paxon, 182
Paxton, 182
Pay, 218
Payn, 4
Peach, 107
Peacock, 21, 135
Peake, 20, 107
Pearce, 10, 29
Pears, 10
Pearse, 29
Pearson, 10
Peart, 208
Pease, 155
Peck, 20, 107
Pedder, 181
Peel, 132
Pegg, 93
Peggs, 93
Pegram, 167
Pell, 37
Pellew, 139
Pender, 181
Penfold, 124, 135
Penkridge, 109
Penn, 135
Pennefather, 194
Pennell, 4, 38
Penner, 181
Penninger, 185
Penny, 202
Penrose, 67
Penruddock, 67
Penry, 38
Pentecost, 89
Pepper, 20, 36, 155
Peppercorn, 207
Pepperell, 207
Peppiatt, 29
Peppitt, 29
Pepys, 29
Percy, 6, 138
Perkins, 32, 63
Perks, 32, 38, 63
Perowne, 51, 60
Perrett, 126
Perrier, 22
Perrott, 32, 63
Perry, 32, 142
Pescod, 155
Peskett, 155
Petch, 107

Petitgas, 191
Peto, 99
Pett, 127
Pettifer, 201
Pettigrew, 201
Pettingall, 33, 97
Pettinger, 33
Pettman, 127
Peverell, 207
Pew, 140
Phelps, 87
Philbrick, 31
Phillimore, 36
Phillips, 46
Philp, 87
Philpot, 62, 87
Phipps, 87
Physick, 123
Pick, 20, 107, 219
Pickard, 99
Pickbourne, 107
Pickersgill, 109
Pickett, 107
Pickford, 107
Pickles, 39
Pickwick, 107
Pied-de-Lievre, 227
Piedeleu, 227
Piedoie, 227
Pierpoint, 138
Piggott, 107
Pike, 20, 107, 226
Pilchard, 227
Pilcher, 171
Pilgrim, 167
Filler, 131
Pillman, 132
Pillsbury, 40
Pirn, 94
Pinch, 136 «. 2
Pinches, 136 ». 2
Pinchin, 136 ». 2
Finder, 181
Pinfold, 124, 135
Pink, 40
Pinner, 172, 181
Pinnock, 219
Pipkin, 29
.Pirie, 119, 142
Pitman, 174
Pitt, 127
Place, 131
Plaice, 131
Plaistow, 122
Piatt, 104, 113
Platts, 104
Playfair, 193
Plays ted, 122
Plimsoll, 51
Plowman, 163
Plumb, 35

Plummer, 153
Plumptre, 97
Pobgee, 135, 220
Pochin, vi
Pockett, 222
Pocock, 21, 218
Poe, 21, 218
Pogson, 93
Poidevin, 99
Poincare, 200
Poindexter, 200
Poingdestre, 200
Poitevin, 9
Pole, 99, 116
Pollard, 223
Pollock, 99
Polwarth, 67
Pomeroy, n, 142
Pomfret, 15
Pond, 116, 135
Ponder, 181
Pontifex, 105
Pool, 12, 104, 116
Pooley, 116
Poorgrass, 119
Pope, 144
Popjoy, 135, 220
Popkin, 62
Poppleton, 118
Popplewell, 118
Porch, 131
Porcher, 131
Porker, 23
Porson, 87
Port, 129
Portal, 131
Portch, 131
Porteous, 136
Portwine, 9
Posnett, 30
Postill, 86
Postlethwaite, 112
Pothecary, 176
Pott, 34

Pottinger, 33, 35, 176
Potts, 34, 62
Poulter, 15
Poulton, 4, 116
Pound, 97, 116, 135
Povey, 221
Powell, 66, 87
Power, 99, 212
Powles, 87
Poynder, 181
Poynter, 172
Poyntz, 136 ». 2, 142
Poyser, 173
Prall, 141
Pratt, 212
Prawle, 141
Precious, 94

246

Preece, 141
Premier, 213
Prentice, 33
Press, 162
Prest, 162
Prestage, 123
Preston, 123
Price, 46, 88
Prickett, 216
Pridham, 122
Priestman, 64
Prime, 213
Pring, 213
Pritchard, 66
Probyn, 41, 62, 66
Prothero, 66
Proud, 32, 213
Prout, 32, 213
Pro vis, 131
Prowse, 213
Prust, vi
Prynne, 213
Puddifin, 99
Puddifoot, 48, 201
Pugh', 62
Pull, 116
Pullen, vi
Pullinger, 32
Pullman, 64
Punch, 136 ». 2
Punshon, 136 ». 2
Purcell, 222
Purdey, 203
Purdue, 203
Purkiss, 32
Purnell, 94
Purser, 186
Purvis, 131
Putnam, 31
Puttock, 74, 221
Pyatt, 218
Pye, 218

Quaife, 198
Quartermain, 200
Quatrefages, 141
Quatresous, 202
Quelch, 19
Quennell, 93 n.
Quicke, 210
Quiller, 171
Quilliam, 66
Quint, an
Quodling, 12

Racine, 204
Rackstraw, 206
Radcliffe, 108
Radley, 104
Rae, 223
Ragg, 77

INDEX

Raggett, 77
Raikes, 109
Rainbird, 218
Rainbow, 218
Ralph, 22, 63, 70
Ram, 135
Ramage, 221
Ramsbottom, no «.
Ramsden, no ».
Ranee, 3, 22
Rand, 3, 22
Randall, 22
Rands, 3, 22
Rankin, 22, 63
Rann, 3, 22
Ransom, 36
Ranson, 36
Raper, 31
Raven, 135
Rawlin, 63
Rawnsley, 104
Rawson, 22
Ray, 30, 223
Rayment, 72
Raymond, 72
Rayner, 73
Raynes, 100
Read, 74, 214
Reader, 153
Record, 123
Redd, 214
Redgrave, no
Redhead, 107
Redknap, 107
Redmond, 72
Reece, 29
Reed, 74, 214
Reeder, 153
Rees, 29
Reeve, 164, 181
Reeves, 147
Reid, 74, 214
Relf, 22, 63, 70
Renard, 225
Rennie, 66
Renshaw, no
Reuter, 158
Reynell, 80
Reynolds, 73, 74, 80
Rhodes, 104, 127
Rice, 156
Rich, 63
Richer, 82
Richmond, 121
Rick, 62, 74
Ricketts, 63
Ridding, 111
Rider, 158
Ridge, 109
Ridler, 177
Ridley, 104

Rigg, 31, 109
Rigmaideu, 195
Rimmer, 187
Riou, 51
Ritchie * 63
Rivers, 104, 115
Roach, 140, 227
Roadnight, 145
Roads, 127
Roan, 100
Robb, 62 .
Roberts, 46
Robinson, 43, 47
Robison, 38
Rochford, 139
Rodd, 74, in
Roe, 216, 223
Roebuck, 135
Roff, 22, 70
Rogers, 46
Roker, 185
Rolfe, 22, 63
Roller, 154
Rollit, 79
Rolls, 22, 79
Romer, 167
Romilly, 51
Rood, in
Rose, 136
Rosenberg, 55
Rosevear, 67
Rossiter, 99
Rothschild, 135
Roundhay, 105
Rouse, 9, 21
Rousseau, 21
Rowbotham, 114
Rowe, 8, 79, 128
Rowlinson, 79
Rowntree, 118
Rowsell, 214
Roy, 216
Royce, 94
Royds, in
Royle, 33
Rubinstein, 55
Rudd, 74, 214
Ruddock, 214
Rudge, 214
Rumball, 71
Rumbold, 71, 72
Runciman, 64
Rush, 21, 99, 214
Russ, 21, 99, 214
Russell, 21, 214
Rutter, 158
Rycroft, 124

Ryle, 33
Rymer, 187

Sacheverell, 156 n,

ItfDEk

HI

Saokville, 139
Sacristan, 166
Sadd, 209
Saint, 86
St. Maur, 10 1
Sale, 4, 131 i
Salisbury, 36
Sallows, 118J
Salmon, 54,^85, 227
Salt, 156
Salter, 155
Salvage, 211
Samson, 85
Sanctuary, 130
Sandeman, 64
Sanders, 62
Sandys, 29
Sanger, 166
Sangster, 166
Sansom, 36
Sanson, 36
Sargent, 32, 163, 183
Sarkander, 150 ».
Sarson, 98
Sartorius, 105 «.
Satterthwaite, 112
Saucer, 176
Saul, 4

Saunders, 62, 82
Savage, 211
Savory, 119
Sawyer, 148 J
Saxon, 98
Saxton, 167
Sayce, 216
Sayer, 73 ».
Sayers, 12, 73
Saylor, 164
Saynor, 145
Scales, 133
Scammell, 134
Scattergood, 204
Schlechter, 150
Schneidewind, 205
Schofield, 112
Schulze, 43
Schiittespeer, 191
Sclater, 29
Scoggins, in
Scorer, 152
Scotland, 24
Scott, 24, 96
Scrimgeour, 175
Scriven, 172
Scrivener, 172
Scroggins, in
Scroggs, in
Scrabbs, in
Scutt, 222
Seabright, 73
Seafowl, 75

.Seal, 131
Seaman, 71, 164
Seamer, 10, 44, 170
Searle, 74
Seeker, 170
Secretan, 167
Seeley, 209
Seely, 209
Segar, 12
Selfe, 40
Selig, 55
Selinger, 34
Sellar, 155, 175
Sellars, 29
Semark, 34
Semple, 34
Senior, 145
Sentry, 131
Sessions, 100
Setter, 153
Severn, 115
Seward, 73, 178
Sewell, 73
Sewer, 150
Sexton, 167
Seymour, 10, 34
Shacklock, 206
Shafto, 107
Shakeshaft, 204
Shakespeare, 191, 204
Shannon, 165
Shapster, 44, 170
Sharp, 47
Shaw, 45, no
Shaylor, 200
Shearer, 170
Shearman, 170
Shears, 136
Shearsmith, 44
Sheldrick, 218
Shepard, 39
Shepherd, 178
Sheppard, 39
Sherlock, 206
Sherman, 170
Sherrard, 109
Sherratt, 109
Sherriff, 162
Sherwin, 205
Shilling, 202
Shipman, 164
Shipp, 136
Shipway, 128
Shoosmith, 44
Shoppee, 53
Shore, 116, 129, 151
Shorthouse, 198
Shott, 222
Shovel, 213
Showier, 178
Shrubb, in

Shumebotham, 114
Shurety, 185
Shurlock, 206
Shute, 128
Shuttleworth, 123
Sibbs, 75, 76
Sibley, 94
Sickelmore, 119
Siddons, 94
Sidney, 34
Siggers, 69
Siggins, 82
Siggs, 75
Silburn, 209
Silley, 209
Sillifant, 209
Silverlock, 198
Simcox, 65
Simister, 149
Simmonds, 35, 74
Simnel, 156
Simons, 2, 29
Simper, 34
Simpson, 26, 35
Sims, 26
Sinclair, 34
Sisley, 88
Sisson, 63
Sivier, 177
Sixdenier, 202
Skey, 211
Skrimshire, 175
Slack, 113
Slade, 112
Slagg, 113
Slater, 29
Slatter, 29
Slayer, 153
Sleigh, 210
Slight, 210
Slipper, vi
Slocombe, 106, 207
Sloman, 64, 113
Sloper, 41
Slow, 113
Slowley, 113
Sly, 210
Smale, 41 '
Smelt, 226
Smith, 18
Smithson, 147
Smoker, 41
Smythe, 28
Snape, 114
Snell, 74, 210
Snooks, 141
Snowdon, 115
Soar, 215
Sole, 116
Somers, 90
Somerville, 139

248

Sonncnschein, 55
Soper, 153
Sorrel, 215
Sotheran, 97
Souter, 23, 151
Sowerbutts, 156
Spalding, 71
Sparhawk, 75, 221
Spark, 12, 75, 221
Sparks, 221
Speight, 219
Speke, 219
Speller, 187
Spelman, 187
Spence, 134, 1S6
Spencer, 33, 186
Speyer, 55
Spicer, 2, 152
Spick, 219
Spiller, 187
Spillman, 187
Spilsbury, 40
Spink, 40
Spittle, 34
Spittlehouse, 34, 131
Spooner, 172
Spragg, 212
Spratt, 227
Spring, 22, 90, 104
Springett, 193
Sprott, 227
Spry, 212
Spurling, 226
Spurr, 136
Squire, 33
Stables, 134
Stace, 18
Stacey, 18, 33
Stagg, 135
Stainer, 21
Staines, 108
Stamford, 117
Stamp, 100
Stanford, 117
Stanger, 175
Stangrave, no
Stanhope, 108
Stanier, 21
Stanton, ro8
Staple, 123
Stapleton, 123
Stark, 211
Starling, 219
Starr, 136, 219
Stead, 18, 122
Steer, 212
Stelfox, 225
Stennett, 87
Stenson, 30
Sterling, 97
Stewart, 180

INDEX

Stiggins, 12, 23, 77
Stimpson, 87
Stobart, 178
Stock, 122
Stodart, 178
Stoer, 226
Stoke, 122
Stone, 108
Stopford, 99
Storm, 224
Storr, 212
Stott, 222
Stout, 209
Stow, 122
Strafford, 117
Straker, 175
Strang, 31
Strange, 12
Strangeways, 7
Stratford, 117
Stratton, 127
Straw, 155
Streatfeild, 29, 112
Stredwick, 127
Street, 97, 104, 120,

127
Stretton, 127
Strickland, 37
Stringer, 169
Strode, no
Stroud, no
Struthers, no
Stuart, 180
Stubbs, 11, 105
Studdart, 179
Sturdee, 209
Sturdy, 209
Sturgeon, 226
Sturgess, 40
Sturm, 224
Stutfield, 139
Stutter, 179
Such, 11
Suckling, 195
Sugar, 12
Sugden, 48
Sugg, 222
Sully, 30
Summer, 90
Summerfield, 139
Sumner, 163
Sumpter, 187
Sure, 151
Surtees, 104
Sutcliffe, 108
Sutor, 23, 105 »., 151
Suttle, 16, 29
Swain, 10, 177, 222
Swann, 135
Sweet, 74
Swindell, 106

Swingler, 170
Swinnert,U79
Swire, 162
Sword, 136
Swyer, 162
Sykes, 115
Symons, 29
Synyer, 145

Taberer, 155
Tabernacle, 131
Tabor, 155
Tacey, 40
Taddy, 84
Taggy, 84
Tait, 25, 75, 76
Talbot, 224
Tallboys, 205
Tallis, 141
Tamson, 31
Tangye, 88
Tankard, 12
Tarbutt, 227
Tardif, 207
Targett, 227
Tarleton, 123
Tasker, 177
Tassell, 221
Tate, 25, 75
Taylor, 43, 153
Tebb, 4, 58
Tebbitt, 4
Tedder, 178
Tedman, 16, 34
Tegg, 223
Teler, 44
Telfer, 206
Teller, 44
Tellwright, 44
Tempest, 224
Temple, 131
Templeman, 131
Tennant, 146
Tennyson, 14
Terrell, 72
Terriss, 81
Terry, 81
TSte, 126
Teufcl, 86
Textor, 148 n.
Thacker, 173
Thackeray, 127
Thomas, 46
Thompson, 24, 35, 47
Thoreau, 5
Thornber, 122
Thorne, 119
Thorold, 72
Thoroughgood, 73
Thorp, 37, 122
Thresher, 19

Thripp, 40, 122

Thrower, 187

Thrupp, 37, 122

Thunder, 224

Thunichtgut, 204

Thurkle, 39

Thurtle, 39

Thwaites, 105, in

Thynne, 28

Tibbald, 70

Tibbies, 70, 95

Tibbs, 4, 70

Tickell, 39

Tickner, 175

Tidd, 75, 76, 87

Tidmarsn, 113

Tiffany, 89

Tiffin, 89

Tigg, 75

Tighe, 113

Till, 24, 93

Tillett, 24, 93

Tilley, 24, 93

Tillman, 177

Tillotson, 24, 93

Tillson, 93

Tilly, 93

Timbs, no

Tindall, 106

Tinker, 174

Tinkler, 174

Tipler, 9

Tipper, 153, 169

Titchmarsh, 113

Titheredge, 126
Titmus, 219
Tobin, 34
Tod, 225

Todhunter, 185, 225
Toft, 108
Toll, 62
Toller, 185
Tollett, 62
Tolley, 34, 62
Tombs, no
Tomkins, 35
Tomlin, 24
Tompkins, 24, 35
Tongue, 200
Tonkins, 35
Tonks, 35
Tonson, 24
Toogood, 204
Tooke, 75
Tooley, 34
Toomer, 34
Toon, 123
Toosey, 18, 34
Tootell, 106
Tooth, 199
Topliff, 108

IKDEX

Torrens, 115
Toulmin, 24, 37
Tout, 40
Tower, 21
Towers, 100
Towler, 185
Town, 122
Townroe, 128
Townsend, 126
Townson, 24, 125
Tozer, 170
TrancVevent, 205
Tranter, 182
Travers, 142
Travis, 142
Treadaway, 35
Treasure, 155
Treble, 14
Tredgold, 206
Tremble, 206
Trent, 115
Trethewy, 67
Triggs, 75
Trinder, 154
Trinkwasser, 190
Tripper, 179
Tristram, 79
Trollope, 108
Troplong, 204
Trotter, 185,' 201
Troutbeck, 115
Trower, 187
Trumble, 206
Trumbull, 206
Tubb, 4
Tubbs, 4
Tuck, 75
Tucker, 170
Tudor, 87
Tunder, 224
Tupman, 179
Tupper, 179
Turberville, 139
Turbot, 73, 227
Turnbuck, 206
Turnbull, 206
Turner, 44, 148
Turney, 47, 100
Turpin, 80
Turrell, 72
Tuttle, 106
Twaddell, 106
Tweddell, 106
Twells, 34
Twelvetrees, 141
Twentyman, 191
Twiss, 128
Twitchell, 128
Twitchen, 128
-Tyacke, 216
Tyars, 98 n.

MS

Tyas, vi, 7, 98
Tye, 113
Tyers, 98 ».
Tyler, 45, 153
Tyrrell, 72
Tyson, 32

Ulyett, 73
Underwood, 104
Unwin, 75
Upjohn, 67
Usher, 184

Vandepoerenboom, 119

Vanner, 31

Varden, 100

Vardon, 100

Varney, 142

Vaughan, 48, 216

Vavasour, 11

Veal, 157, 223

Veck, 33

Veitch, 137

Venables, 139

Venn, 24

Vennell, 128

Venner, 31

Venus, 83

Verity, 197

Verney, 142

Vernon, 138

Vesey, 137

Vicars, 147

Vicary, 165

Vice, 197

Vick, 33 I

Vickers, 147

Vidler, 31

Vigers, 147

Vigors, 147

Villiers, 138

Vince, 87

Vincett, 87

Vincey, 87

Viney, 142

Vingtain, 191

Vinter, 41, 90

Vipan, 138

Vipont, 138

Virgil, 83

Virgin, 135

Virgoe, 195

Virtue, 197

Vivian, 79

Vizard, 72

Vokes, 24, 61

Vowle, 24

Vowler, 24

Voysey, 137

Vye, 79

250

Waddiiovc, 207
Waddy, 75
Wade, 75, 76, 117
Wadman, 170
Wadsworth, 123
Wager, 177
Waghorn, 204
Wagstaff, 204
Wait, 185
Waldron, 81
Walker, 44, 45, 170
Wall, 125
Waller, 105
Wallis, 19, 97
Wallnutt, 69
Walrond, 81
Walsh, 19, 97
Walter, 69
Walthew, 73
Want, 197
Ward, 45, 180
Warden, 180
Wardroper, 186
Ware, 129
Waring, 42, 80
Warman, 73
Warner, 81, r85
Warnett, 80
Warnum, 122
Warr, 129, 197
Warren, 80, 124
Warrener, 185
Wastall, 156
Waterman, 3
Watmough, 195
Watson, 3
Watt, 3
Waugh, 125
Way, 128
Way man, 153
Weale, in
Weare, 129
Weatherhead, 179, 227
Webb, 148, 163
Webber, 149
Webster, 149
Wedlake, 197
Wedlock, 197
Weech, 123
Weight, 185
Weightman, 153
Weir, 129
Weisspfennig, 202
Welch, 19
Weld, in
Wellbeloved, 191
Weller, 22

INDEX

Wellesley, 30
Wells, 22
Welsh, 97, 104
Wenman, 178
Went, 128
Wesley, 30
Westaway, 128
Westray, 97
Westrupp, 122
Whale, 226
Whalebelly, 226
Wheatstone, 108
Whichello, 220
Whisker, 72
Whitbread, 156
White, 16, 47, 71, 214
Whitelaw, 107
Whiter, 149
Whitfield, 112
Whiting, 71
Whitlock, 198
Whitster, 149
Whittaker, 112
Whittier, 21
Wich, 116
Wick, 116, 123
Widdows, 92
Widdowson, 92
Wigg, 57, 74
Wiggins, 12
Wight, 16, 214
Wilkes, 38
Wilkin, 63
Will, 63
Willard, 73
Willcocks, 65
Willett, 63
William, 63
Williams, 43, 63
Williamson, 63
Willows, 105
Wills, 63
Willsher, 99
Willy, 63
Wilmot, 59
Wilson, 22, 47, 63
Winbolt, 69
Winch, 129
Windebank, 105
Windle, 39
Windus, 152
Winfrey, 73
Winkle, vi
Winship, 204
Winspeare, 204
Winstanley, 69
Winston, 69

Winter, 41. 9°
Winthrop, " 2
Wisdom, 197
Wishart, 72 _ Tnn
Wolf, 17, 55, 7i, 190
Wolmer, 73
Wolsey, 69
Wong, H4
Wontner, 197
Wood, 45, I0 9
Woodall, 219
Woodard, 180
Woodger, 14 8
Woodhead, 126
Woodhouse, 132
Woodroffe, 181
Woodruff, 181
Woodyer, 148 ».
Woollard, 198
Woollett, 73
Woolridge, 73
Woosnam, 30
Wooster, 19
Worster, 19
Worth, 132
Wragg, 77
Wray, 29, 127
Wright, 18, 44
Wrightson, 147
Wyatt, 63
Wyberd, 73
Wyche, 123
Wyclif, 108
Wykes, 127
Wyllie, 28
Wyman, 64, 73
Wynd, 128
Wyndham, 31
Wynne, 15, 216
Wynyard, 124
Wythe, 117

Yarde, 124
Yates, 124
Yeatman, 124
Yeats, 124
Yeo, 118
Yeoman, 162
Young, 17, 47
Youngmau, 64
Yule, 89

Zouch, n
Zuckertort, 150
Zwanziger, 191

Printed by Hazell, Watson & Viney, Ld., London and Aylesbury, England,